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The Theosophical Congress 



HELD BY THE 



THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



AT THE 



PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS, 

WORLD'S FAIR OF 1893, AT CHICAGO, 111., 
SEPTEMBER 15, 16, 17. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS 

AND DOCUMENTS. 



AMERICAN SECTION HEADQUARTERS T. S., 

144 Madison Ave., New York. 

1893. 






P ' 




*w>* 



THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS 

HELD BY THE 

THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 

AT THE 

PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS, 
World's Fair ok 1893, at Chicago, III., 

September 15, 16, 17. 
REPORT AND DOCUMENTS. 



The following documents issued from the office of the Vice- 
President of the Theosophical Society and by the managers of 
the World's Fair Auxiliary explain themselves and give the history 
of the matter. 

THEOSOPHY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR, 
September 15-16, 1893. 



Information for Members of the T. S. 



For several months prior to April, 1893, the General Secretary of the American 
Section of the Theosophical Society, together with Mr. George E. Wright, Pres. 
of the Chicago Branch T. S., endeavored to procure an assignment of the Society 
to a date in the Parliament of Religions so as to present the subject of Theos- 
ophy, but was not successful until just before the Seventh Annual Convention 
of the American Section, April 23-24, 1893. The following letter will show the 
assignment made for the Society : 

World's Congress Auxiliary. 

Committee on Religious Congresses. 

Rev. John Henry Barrows, D.D., Chairman. 

Chicago, U. S. A., April 14th, iSgj. 
Mr. George E. Wright, 

212 Stock Exchange, Chicago. 

My Dear Sir : It gives me great pleasure to learn that you are taking active 

steps to have the Theosophical Societies of the World represented in the great 

Parliament of Religions. I hope that when you meet your friends in New York, 

arrangements will be made to perfect the organization for carrying out your 



4 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

plans in connection with the Parliament. I understand a local committee has 
been appointed by President Bonney of the World's Congress Auxiliary. I take 
pleasure in assigning, as days for your meeting, Friday and Saturday, September 
15th and 16th. 

Hoping you will have a large and important representation of your various 
societies, I remain, Yours sincerely, 

John Henry Barrows, 
Chairman Committee on Religious Congresses. 

World's Congress Auxiliary 
of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. 

general officers : 
President, Vice-President, Treasurer. 

Charles C. Bonney. Thomas B. Bryan. Lyman J. Gage. 

Secretaries, 
Benjamin Butterworth, Clarence E. Young. 

Chicago, April 18th, i8gj. 
Mr. George E. Wright, 

Pres. Chicago Branch Theosophical Society. 

My Dear Sir; In reply to your favor of the 7th inst. I take pleasure in saying 
that I am advised that the Rev. John Henry Barrows, Chairman of the General 
Committee of the World's Congress Auxiliary on Religious Congresses, and 
Rev. Augusta J Chapin, Chairman of the Woman's Committee of the World s 
Congress Auxiliary on this subject, have recommended that the Theosophical 
Society be given an opportunity in the World's Congress of 1893 to set forth 
the Religious and Ethical aspects and relations of Theosophy, and an assignment 
of a proper time and place for such presentation will accordingly be made I 
understand that Dr. Barrows has suggested that he may be able to arrange for 
your presentation on Friday and Saturday, the 15th and 16th days of September, 
and upon that point I will refer you to him. 

The matter of what is known as Psychical Research and Phenomena having 
been withdrawn from your application, it is understood that the presentation to 
be made in the Department of Religion will be confined to Theosophy as a 
Religion and a system of Ethics. I am advised that some of the most distin- 
guished members of the Theosophical Society have already accepted other 
engagements in the Department of Religion, and will also take part in your 
own presentation. 

On your return from the meeting soon to be held in New York City, I will 
appoint the Committee of Organization, of which you will be Chairman. Please 
bring with you a list of your Advisory Council and a draft of the Preliminary 
Address for your Congress. As the entire matter of what are known as " Occult 
Phenomena" has been committed to the Psychical Research Congress, I trust 
you will take the pains to exclude that subject from your address, and make it 
quite clear that the object of your demonstration is to give the Religious and 
Ethical world better information than they now possess of the Religious and 
Ethical principles of your order. This regulation I am quite sure will prove 
wholly advantageous to the demonstration you desire to make. 
Awaiting the further action you are to take, I am 

Very respectfully yours, 

Charles C. Bonney, 
President World's Congress Auxiliary. 

At the Convention of the T. S. above mentioned Brother George E. Wright 
made report in the matter, and what follows is abstracted from his report for 
dissemination among members by order of the Convention. 

The World's Fair at Chicago has two sides or aspects ; the first the commer- 
cial one, the second its literary, philosophical, and intellectual side. The second 
phase is technically known as the World's Congress Auxiliary. It takes in a 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 5 

great many subjects, not the least being the Parliament of Religions. Begin- 
ning in May the different Congresses are : Woman's Progress, Public Press, 
Medicine and Surgery, Temperance, Moral and Social Reform. Commerce and 
Finance, Music, Literature, Education, Engineering, Art Architecture, Govern- 
ment, Law, Political Science. Science and Philosophy ; in September : Labor, 
Religion, Missions and Church Societies, Sunday Rest ; October : Public Health 
and Agriculture. 

The World's Congress Auxiliary is officially constituted as follows : 
i. A central organization authorized by the Directory of the World's 
Columbian Exposition, and recognized by the Government of the United States 
as the proper agency to conduct a series of W T orld's Congresses in connection 
with the Exposition 

2. A local Committee of Arrangements for each Congress. The Committee 
constitutes the means of communication and action between the Auxiliary and 
persons and organizations that will participate in a given Congress. This 
Committee of Arrangements consists of a comparatively small number of 
persons who reside in or near the place where the Congresses are to be held. 

3. Each Committee has adjoined to it and constituting its non-resident but 
active branch, an Advisory Council, composed of persons eminent in the work 
involved, and selected from many parts of the world. The members of such 
Councils cooperate with the proper Committees by individual correspondence. 

A further interesting and commendable feature of the organization is the 
recognition of Woman as entitled to equal rights and privileges in the manage- 
ment. There is a Woman's Branch of the World's Congress Auxiliary, and it is 
expressly provided that in each Congress there shall be two Committees, one of 
Men, reporting to President Bonney, and one of Women, reporting to Mrs. Potter 
Palmer, President of the Woman's Branch, the number of each being alike 

The Parliament of Religions begins on Monday, September nth, and 
continues seventeen days. Following is a condensed statement of the pro- 
gramme : 

September nth. Addresses of welcome and responses by representatives 
from Great Britain, Continental Europe, India, China, Japan, Australia, Canada, 
Africa, and South America. 

September 12th. Origin and Universality of Belief in God. Primitive 
form of Theism as witnessed by the oldest Sacred Writings. God in History 
and in the light of Modern Science. 

September 13th. Man, his nature, his dignity, his imperfection. The nature 
of Life. Various beliefs regarding the Future Life. Human Brotherhood as 
taught by the different historic religions. 

September 14th. Religion essentially characteristic of Humanity Expression 
of the relations between God and Man. What constitutes a Religious as distin- 
guished from a Moral Life. Spiritual Forces in Human Progress 

September 15th. Importance of a serious study of all Systems of Religion. 
The Dead Religions, what they have bequeathed to the Living. To what degree 
has each Religion justified the God of all the Earth in the historic evolution of 
the Race ? 

September 16th. The study of the Sacred Books in Literature. Religion as 
interpreted by the World's Poets. What the Jewish, Christian, and other Sacred 
Literatures have wrought for Mankind. 

September 17th. Religion and the Family. The Marriage Bond. The 
Domestic Education of Children. 

September 18th. The Religious Leaders of Mankind. Incarnation claimed 
by different Religions. Their Historicity and Worth. The Sympathy of 
Religions. 

September 19th. Religion in its relation to Natural Sciences and to Arts and 
Letters. Can the knowledge of Religion be scientific? Has the Science of 
Religion given aid to the other Sciences ? 

September 20th. Religion in its relation to Morals. Essential Oneness of 
Ethical Ideas among Men. Agnostic notions of Conscience, Duty, and Right. 
Ethical Systems and Ethical Types produced by various historic faiths. Different 
Schemes for the Restoration of Fallen Man. 

September 21st. Religion and Social Problems. Religion and Wealth. 
Religion and Poverty. Religion and Temperance. Comparative benefits 
conferred upon Woman by the different Religions. 



6 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

September 22d. Religion and Civil Society. Love of Country. Observance 
of Law. Perils of Great Cities. Is Present-day Religion adequate to meet the 
Requirements and Dangers of Modern Life? 

September 23d. Religion and the Love of Mankind. The Fraternity of 
Peoples. Duties of European and American Nations toward China. Interna- 
tional Justice and Amity. Arbitration instead of War. 

September 24th. The Present Religious Condition of Christendom. What 
Religion has wrought for America. 

September 25th. Religious Reunion of Christendom. 

September 26th. The Religious Union of the Whole Human Family. The 
World's Religious Debt to Asia, Europe, and America. What are the points of 
contact and contrast between the different Religions as disclosed by the preced- 
ing Conferences ? 

September 27th. Elements of perfect Religion as recognized and set forth in 
the different Historic faiths and characteristics of Ultimate Religion. What is 
the Centre of the Coming Religious Unity of Mankind ? 

I have necessarily condensed the official programme, endeavoring in the 
above to convey only its most salient features. But I desire now to ask all my 
listeners if they have noticed how perfectly Theosophical is the list of subjects 
presented. There is throughout no begging of the question, or assertion of 
dogma. Everything is placed upon the most liberal basis. In fact, the whole 
programme sounds as if it might have been taken from a syllabus of one of the 
Theosophical Branches. We ought to remember also that these ideas are to be 
discussed not by one set of individuals or by representatives of a single creed, 
but they will be taken up by the most distinguished exponents of all the world's 
great religions. The plan of holding a Parliament of Religions, at which the rep- 
resentatives of the great historic faiths shall sit together in frank and friendly 
conference over the great things of our common spiritual and moral life, is no 
longer a dream. The religious world in its great branches will be represented 
in this truly oecumenical conference. There will be Buddhist scholars, both 
from Japan and India, and probably also from Siam. Our own beloved brother 
and Fellow-Theosophist, H. Dhammapala, Secretary of the Maha Bodhi Society, 
has been commissioned to represent the Southern Buddhist Church. It is 
expected by the Auxiliary managers that he will be one of the greatest attrac- 
tions in the Parliament of Religions,, and every courtesy will be extended to 
him by them during his stay in Chicago. The Local Committee on the Theo- 
sophical Congress hope to secure his services also during our sessions. But 
leaving that aside for the present and returning to the general Parliament, I 
may say that at least one of the high priests of Shintoism is expected to be 
present. Two Moslem scholars, eminent in India, have accepted invitations. 
The eloquent Mozoomdar will speak for progressive Hinduism. Arrangements 
are being made to secure papers from orthodox Brahmins. The Chinese 
Government has commissioned a scholar to represent Confucianism. It is 
expected that Parsees from Bombay will speak of their ancient faith. Jewish 
rabbis of Europe and America are in earnest sympathy with this movement. 
The interest in the Exposition and in the approaching Congress will draw to 
Chicago numerous representatives of the historic religions. The Catholic 
Archbishops of America at their meeting in New York in November, 1892, took 
action approving the participation of the Catholic Church in the Parliament of 
Religions. To name over the list of Protestant Churches which have arranged 
to take part in it would be but to make a schedule of the whole of orthodoxy. 

Early last winter Brother William Q. Judge wrote to me as President of the 
Chicago T. S., suggesting that as I was on the spot it might be well to take 
steps looking toward our being represented at the Fair, and to see what could 
be done on behalf of the Theosophical Society. I thereupon visited the World's 
Fair headquarters, and subsequently in conjunction with Brother Judge as 
Vice-President of the T. S. and our General Secretary entered a formal applica- 
tion in writing for representation. When Mrs. Besantwas in Chicago in Decem- 
ber we visited together the officials of the World's Congress, and on the follow- 
ing day the Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, Chairman of the Woman's Committee on 
Religions, called upon Mrs. Besant at my house. It was then practically de- 
cided that we were to secure representation, but a question that arose later 
caused considerable delay. That question was, where, at just what point in the 
Congress, ought we to be located. There never was any question as to our 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 7 

right to be represented. Large bodies naturally move slowly, and there was a 
great pressure of business upon the Auxiliary, owing to the vast amount of cor- 
respondence and negotiations rendered necessary in giving all the various re- 
ligions and other organizations their appropriate places. But all was finally 
brought to a satisfactory issue, so far as our application was concerned. 

Our assignment of dates is in every respect of a most satisfactory nature. 
In the first place we are granted a separate and distinct Congress of our own, 
which will be duly and officially advertised as the Theosophical Congress. We 
are not lumped in, as many societies are, among several others under some 
general head, thus losing much of our individuality and no little of the publicity 
which is sought in such an affair. On the contrary, every effort will be made by 
the World's Congress Auxiliary to attract attention to our Congress ?nd to give 
it the most favorable auspices. In my final interview with President Bonney 
last Wednesday he said : 

'You [meaning the Theosophical Society] are now a part of the World's 
Congress, and we are as much interested in making it a success as you are." 

And this is in fact the case. Every facility will be extended to our people to 
make the best possible showing. 

Then as to the dates of our sessions, could anything be better? The Parlia- 
ment of Religions formally opens on Monday, September nth, and we are 
assigned to the following Friday and Saturday, September 15 and 16, 1893. The 
Unitarian and Universalist Societies meet at the same time, and certainly we 
can make a showing that will compare favorably with these organizations. As 
a matter of fact, there is no reason why Theosophy should not make a pro- 
nounced success of this occasion. We have our philosophy which has stood 
the test of untold ages. All of the really great philosophers of the past have 
taught it. Many of the most advanced thinkers of the present day, materialistic 
as it is, have embraced it. The Theosophical Society includes some of the most 
brilliant intellects in all lands. Our orators are eloquent, our writers convinc- 
ing. Where can they find a better opportunity to spread the Theosophic idea 
than right here in this wonderful Parliament of Religions, the meeting-place of 
the best minds in Europe and America, the intellectual centre towards which in 
this year of 1893 all the culture of the world will turn, whose proceedings are 
officially sanctioned by the Government of the United States, whose every act 
will be fully and faithfully recorded in the daily press, whose official records 
will be preserved in durable form, and, finally, whose sessions will form a grand 
historical event, marking the change from the old dispensation of darkness and 
dogmatism to the new era of light, liberty of thought, and religious expression, 
and, above all, the spirit of universal fraternity with which the Theosophical 
Society is animated, and of which it is indeed the standard-bearer? 

All sessions will be held in the new Art Palace on the Lake Front, and during 
some of the time several Congresses will be in progress simultaneously. There are 
in the building two enormous halls capable of holding 3,000 to 4,000 people each, 
and besides these there are a dozen smaller halls accommodating from 300 up to 
1,500 each The Art Palace is erected in a park just in front of the Auditorium 
Hotel, near the centre of Chicago. The Fair proper is held at Jackson Park, 
some distance towards the outer limits of Chicago. 

In accordance with the rules of the managers of the Auxiliary, the Local Com- 
mittee of the Theosophical Congress is named from citizens in or near Chicago. 
They are as follows : George E. Wright, Chairman ; Prof. Frederic G. Gleason, 
Alpheus M Smith, Mrs. E. H.Pratt, Dr. Elizabeth Chidester, Mrs. M. M. 
Thirds, Judge R. Wes McBride, Judge Edward O'Rourke, Mrs. Gen. M. M. 
Trumbull, Mrs Anna Byford Leonard. 

The Advisory Council is given in the Bulletin which will be officially issued 
by the Fair managers. The Chairman of that Council is William Q. Judge, as 
Vice-President of the Theosophical Society. The necessity of having represent- 
atives in Chicago is the reason for Brother Wright's being Chairman of the Local 
Committee ; the need of having a general representative in America caused 
Brother Judge to be selected as Chairman of the Advisory Council ; otherwise 
of course Col. H. S. Olcott would have been its Chairman as President of the 
Theosophical Society. 

On the 26th of April a cable of information was sent to Col. H. S. Olcott to 
Madras, India, asking for his approval of the plans so far matured and the 
general appointments made, and under date of April 29th he replied by cable 



8 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

from there that he approved if we thought the matter judicious, he being too 
far away to know all the facts. He thus approves, as there can be no question 
of the propriety of our having our days in the Religious Parliament. 

The General Secretary of the Indian Section being present at the Convention 
April 23d gave a written approval of these plans and pledged the indorsement 
and cooperation of the Indian Section. A cable was at the same time sent to 
the European Section, and its officials replied giving their hearty approval also, 
and Mrs. Annie Besant telegraphed that the dates assigned were suitable for her 
and that she would be at the Congress and address it under one of the heads 
provided. Efforts are being made to have the best speakers in the T S. attend 
the Congress, and it may be possible to have Brothers Mead, Keightley, Bur- 
rows, and others from England, and perhaps others from the Indian Section. 
Precise information cannot be given on these points now, as correspondence 
must first be had. In the United States we can of course obtain several good 
speakers. 

While the Fair pays for the printing of the necessary Bulletins issued by us, 
it furnishes no money for such matter as the present nor for other incidental 
expenses. Therefore, under the resolution passed by the last , Convention of 
April, I beg to ask all members who can afford it to send to me contributions 
for those expenses, no matter how small or large such remittances may be, and 
to specify in the letter accompanying any that they are for this object. 

William Q. Judge, 
Gen. Sec. American Sec. T. S. 
j 44 Madison Ave., New York, May, i8gj. 



NOT THINGS, BUT MEN. 



President, Charles C. Bonney. Treasurer, Lyman J. Gage. 

Vice-President, Thos. B. Bryan. Secretary, Benj. Butterworth. 

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS AUXILIARY 

OF THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 



Department of Religion. 



Preliminary Address of the Committee of the World's Congress Auxiliary for a 

Theosophical Congress. 



The Intellectual Department of the World's Columbian Exposition has been 
planned so carefully, and upon such a broad basis, that it can not fail to exercise 
a vast influence in the realm of thought. In fact, by its means chiefly will the 
World's Fair be enabled to develop and attain to its fullest usefulness. 

In the magnificent buildings of the Fair will be exhibited the choicest 
products of Nature and Art, all that the inventive faculty of the century has been 
able to bring forth. 

At the same time, in the Memorial Art Palace on the Lake Front, near the 
centre of the city, will be shown the best developments of human thought. 
Under the auspices of the World's Congress Auxiliary there will be held a series 
of Congresses designed to represent the intellectual, moral, and religious 
progress of mankind. Commencing May 15th, and lasting until November, 
these meetings will comprise a great variety of literary, artistic, and scientific 
subjects. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 9 

But no doubt the greatest interest will centre in the Parliament of Religions 
convened in the Memorial Art Palace, which will begin on September nth, and 
continue seventeen days. 

Never before during the Christian Era has such a gathering been dreamed of, 
much less actually proposed and carried into effect. The idea of bringing 
together the representatives of every historic faith, not only of Christianity but 
also of all the leading Oriental religions, is certainly unique, and will be fraught 
with tremendous results. At any rate, it marks a distinct epoch in the religious 
history of the world. 

The Theosophical Society has been granted representation in the Parliament 
of Religions, thus having opportunity to set forth the religious and ethical 
aspects of Theosophy in the most public manner and under the most favorable 
auspices. 

The matter was first proposed by Mr. William Q. Judge, Vice-President of the 
Theosophical Society, who made a formal application for representation on 
behalf of the Society at large. At the Convention of the American Section of 
the Theosophical Society, held in New York April 23d, 1893, the plan of the 
proposed Congress was clearly set forth, and the matter having been referred to 
a special committee, the latter reported, recommending that the Convention give 
its unqualified indorsement of the Congress, and urging Branch Societies and 
individual Theosophists all over the world to join in the effort to make it a 
success to the fullest possible extent. The report was unanimously adopted, 
and appropriate committees were appointed to cooperate with the World's 
Congress Auxiliary. At the same time, messages were received from the 
secretaries of the Indian and European Sections, indorsing the Congress, and 
promising the cordial assistance of the foreign members and on the following 
day President Olcott cabled from Madras, India, his approval also. 

The Parliament of Religions opens on Monday, September nth, and the 
Theosophical Congress will be held on Friday and Saturday, September 15th and 
16th, having two sessions each day. 

It is confidently expected that many of the most distinguished members of 
the Society, both in Europe and Asia, will be present and take part in the 
proceedings of the Congress. 

Mrs. Annie Besant has already cabled from London her acceptance of an 
invitation to deliver an address. We hope to secure from India the attendance 
of President H. S. Olcott and several of our Hindu brothers of international 
reputation. 

The best talent of the Society should be represented, and we hereby appeal 
to all Theosophists throughout the world to aid in making the Congress a 
splendid success and demonstrating to the whole civilized world of the West that 
the ideal pursued by the Theosophical Society — the Universal Brotherhood of 
Man — is already in considerable measure a realized fact, and that Theosophy 
supplies the true scientific and living basis for right ethics. 

COMMITTEE OF ORGANIZATION. 

Chairman, George E. Wright, President Chicago Theosophical Society, 
Room 48, Athenaeum Building, Chicago. 

Prof. Frederic G. Gleason, 84 Auditorium Building, Chicago, Illinois. 

Judge R W. McBride, . Indiana Supreme Ct., Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Alpheus M. Smith, . . Chamber of Commerce, Chicago, Illinois. 

Judge Edward O'Rourke, Superior Court, Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

COMMITTEE OF THE WOMAN'S BRANCH. 

Chairman, Mrs. E. H. Pratt, 425 La Salle Ave., Chicago. 

Mrs. Gen. M. M. Trumbull, 614 La Salle Ave., Chicago, . . Illinois. 
Dr Elizabeth Chidester, 5910 Michigan Ave.. Chicago. 

Mrs. Anna Byford Leonard, 4201 Ellis Ave . Chicago, 

Mrs. M. M. Thirds, Secretary Central States Committee T. S., Room 48, Athe- 
naeum Building, Chicago. 



IO 



THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



ADVISORY COUNCIL. 

Chairman, William Q. Judge, Vice-President Theosophical Society, 
New York. 
Col. H. S Olcott, President Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras, India. 
Mrs. Annie Besant, . 19 Avenue Road, London, , England. 

Bertram Keightley, Secretary Indian Section T. S , Adyar, Madras, India. 
George R. S. Mead, General Secretary European Section T. S., London, Eng. 
A. P. Sinnett, . . . London, ..... England. 

Prof Wm. Crookes, F R. S , London, . 
Mrs Isabel Cooper-Oakley, London, . 
Countess Constance Wachtmeister 19 Avenue Road, London 



Herbert Burrows 

H. T. Edge, . 

Viscount Pollington, 

James M. Pryse, 

C. Leadbeater, . 

Mrs. Alice L Cleather 

Sidney Coryn, 

Mrs A P. Sinnett, . 

Count Bubna, . 

Miss Francesca Arundale 

Miss Laura Cooper, 

J. M. Watkins, 

R. A. Machell, 

Dr. Archibald Keightley, 

Edward T. Sturdy, . 

J. Dick. C. E., 

H. M. Magee B. A., 

R. B. B Nisbet, 

John Hill, 

F. Bandon Oding, 

H. A. W. Coryn, M. R. C 

Oliver Firth, 

Sidney H. Old, 

Dr. Alfred King, 

Mrs. Herbert Crossley, 

William Kingsland, 

F. L. Gardner, 

Dr. A. H. Guest, 

Bartley Day, 

Mrs. A. Passingham, 

Mrs. Archibald Keightley 

Count Carl von Leiningen 

Frederick Eckstein, 

Dr. Franz Hartmann, 

Baron Leonhardi, 

Mme. Cederschjold, 

Edward Coulomb, 

The Countess d'Adhemar 

Arthur Arnould, 



Marie, Countess of Caithness and Duchesse d 



C. E. Parmelin, 
Gustav Gebhard, 
Ortho Alexander, 
Mme H. de Neufville, 
Mile. Immerzeel, 
Gustav Zorn, 
Senor Jose Xifre, 
J. Roverolta, 
Florensio Pol, 
Dr. Gustav Zander, 
Mme H. Sjotedt, 
Herr Sven Benggston, 



S., 



London 

London, 

London, 

19 Avenue Road, London 

London, 

Harrow, . 

London, 

London, 

London, . 

London, 

London, . 

London, . 

London, . 

Westmoreland 

Dorset, 

Dublin, . 

Dublin, . 

Liverpool, 

Liverpool, 

Newcastle-on-Tyne 

Brixton, London, 

Bradford, 

Birmingham, 

Brighton, 

Brighton, 

Chiswick, London, 

Chiswick, London, 

Manchester, 

Eastbourne, 

Exmouth, 

Westmoreland, 

Schloss Billingheim, Mossbach 

Vienna, 

Hallein, 

Prague 

Stockholm, 

Paris, 

Paris, 

Paris, 



Havre, 

Berlin, 

Corfu, 

Amsterdam, 

Arnheim, 

Odessa, 

Madrid, 

Barcelona, 

Corunna, 

Stockholm, 

Gottenburg, 

Lund, 



Pomar 



Paris 



Ireland. 



England. 



Austria. 



Bohemia, 

Sweden 

France. 



Germany. 

Greece. 

Holland. 

Russia. 
Spain. 



Sweden, 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 



Locarno, 

Foligno, 

High Priest of Ceylon, Colombo, 

Colombo, 

Colombo, 

Colombo, 

Colombo, 

Galle, 

Kandy, 

Kandy, 

Madras, 

Madras, 
Maha Bodhi Society, Buddha Gya, 
late of Government Council, Madras, 

Judge City Court, Madras, 
Dewan Bahadur, Ragoonath Row. late Prime Minister Tanjore, 
Norendro NathSen. Ed. Indian Mirror, Calcutta, . 
Dinnanath Ganguli, Government Pleader, Berhampore, Bengal, 
Nafa Das Roy, . . Berhampore, Bengal, 

Kali Presanna Mukerji, . Barakur. Bengal, 
Purnendu Xath Sinha, . Bankipore Patna, 
H. H. H. Maharajah of Benares, 



Dr. Pioda, 

Count S. Frenfanelli-Cibo, 

Rt Rev. H. Sumangala, 

Peter d'Abrew, 

W. F. Wijayesecarra, 

E. F. Perera, 

Mrs. Musaeus Higgins, 

D. O. Goonasecara, 

A. D. Goonewardena, 

Dr. S. S. Wikaramartu, 

P. R. Venkatram Iyer, 

S. E. Gopalacharlu, . 

H Dharmapala, Secretary 

Hon. S. Subramanny Iyer 

Shrenavasa Row, 



Switzerland. 

Italy. 

Ceylon. 



Ldia. 



Madras, India. 
India. 



Pundit, Benares, 

Pleader, Benares, 

Prof. Mathematics, Allahabad College, India. 

Government Auditor, Allahabad, 

Judge, Agra, .... 

Ludhiana, Punjab, . " 

Ed. People's Journal, Lahore, 

Xadiad. Guzerat, 



Govinda Dasa 

Upendrath Basu. 

Gyanendra Xath Chakravarti 

M. A. Hydari, 

Pyari Lai, 

Rai B. K Laheri, 

Pundit Gopi Xath, 

Manilal Xabhubai Dvivedi, 

H. H. Prince Rupsinghi Harisinghi, Bhwonagar, 

J N. Unwalla, . . Bhwonagar, .... 

Dr. Edulji J. Berham, . Surat, ..... 

Xowtarama Uttarama Trivodi, Pres't Arya Dharma Sabha, Surat, 

Dorabji Dhosabhoy, . Hyderabad, Deccan, 

Tookaram Tatya, . . Bombay, .... 

Pherozsha R. Mehta, . Bombay, .... 

Rustomji K. Modi, . Bombay, .... 

Khan Bahadur, Xaoraji Dhadabhai Khandalawala, Judge, Poona, 



P. Srenavasa Row 
V. Coopooswamy Iyer, 
N. P. Subramani Iyer, 
K. Xarayan Swami Iyer 

A. Xilakanta Shastri, 
Lieut. C L. Peacocke, 

Lieut Beale, 

Jehanjire Sorabji, 

Rustomji Pestonji, 

Sidnev V. Edge, 

Walter R. Old, 

Capt. Banon, 

Gen. Morgan, 

T. Vigiaraghava Charlu, 

Bhwani Shankar, 

C. Kottaya Chetty, . 

Rama Gopal Buxy, . 

Rama Prasad, . 

B. Keshava Pillay, . 
Xibaran C. Gupta, 

Rao Bahadur A. Subhapati Moodleyer, Bellary 
T. G. Swaminatha Iyer, Bellary, 

Kewasji Merwanji Shroff, Bombay, 

Dadhubhai Sorabsha Moonsifua, Broach. 
Babu Xil Comul Mukherji, Calcutta, 



Gooty 

Munsiff, Sholingur, 

Bangalore, .... 

Combakonam, 

Tanjore, .... 

Delhi, .... 

Surat, .... 

Gov't Sec'y, Hyderabad, 

Hyderabad, .... 

Adyar, Madras, 

Adyar, Madras, 

Kulu Kankora, 

Retired Maj. -Gen., Ootacamund, 

Adyar, Madras, 

Pundit, Bombay Presidency, . 

Punjab, .... 

Pleader, Meerut, 
Gooty, .... 

Ranchi, Chota Xagpur, 



THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



N. Anasami Row, . . Coimbatore, .... India. 

Pundit D. Venkatachelam, Shastri, Cuddapah, 

A. Nunjundappa . . Cuddapah, . 

H. H. the Maharajah of Cooch Behar, .... 

H. M Nizams Troops, Hyderabad, " 

Gov't College, Jubbulpore, 
I., Prime Minister of Kapurtala, 

Kapurtala, ... 

Madanapalle, .... 

Lhaassa, ..... Tibet. 

Madanapalle. .... India. 

Moradabad, Bengal, 

Moozufferpore, ... 

Zemindar, Ragoomund Prasad Shanna. " 

Raja Sitish Chandra Pandar Bahadur, Pakur, Bengal. 

V. Vasudeva Sastriar, . Rajahmundry, . " [India. 

Prince Rajakumar Navadwipchandra, Deb Varman Bahadur, Tipperah, Bengal. 
S. R. Ramakrishna Iyer, . Tinnevelly, .... India. 



Capt. G. Ragoonath, 
Pundit P. Baijnath, 
Dewan Ramjas C. S 
Lala Hurrychund, 
O. L. Sarma, 
Bhola Deva Sarman, 
R Seshagiri Row, 
Babu Kalka Prasad, 
Purna Chundra Mitter, 



S. T. Krishnamacharya, 



Babu Shyamacharya Mukerji, Umballa, 



William Q. Judge, 
Dr. J. D. Buck, . 
Dr. Jerome A Anderson, 
Edward B. Rambo, . 
Dr. Allen Griffiths. . 
E. Aug. Neresheimer, 
Alexander H. Spencer, 
Henry T. Patterson. . 
Miss Katharine Hillard, 
William Main, . 
Rev. W. E. Copeland, 
Dr. J. Phillip Knoche, 
Dr. J. W. B. La Pierre, 
J. C. Slafter, 
Paul Henning, . 
W T illiam C. Temple, 
Dr J. H. Salisbury, 
James H. Connelly, 
Donald Nicholson, 
Clement A. Griscom, Jr. 
Mrs. S. A. Harris, 
Frank Neubauer, 
Andrew A. Purman, 
Dr. A P. Buchman, 
George D. Ayres, 
Robert Crosbie, 
J. Ransom Bridge, 
Col. H. N Hooper, 
J. Guilford White, 
Capt. George R. Boush, 
Robert Hosea, . 
Miss Bandusia Wakefield, 
Hon Edward Drayton, 
William Berridge. 
Miss Louise A. Off, 
Dr. J. H. Fulton, 
Frank I. Blodgett, 
Sidney Thomas. 
Mrs. A. L. Doolittle, 
Elliott B. Page, 
A. W Goodrich, 
J. H. Scotford, . 
Claude F Wright, 
John M. Pryse, 
Col. R. E. Whitman, 



Pleader, Pondicherry 



Vice-President Theosophical Society, New York. 
Cincinnati, .... Ohio. 
San Francisco, .... California. 
San Francisco, 
San Francisco, 
New York, 
New York, 
Brooklyn, 
New York, 
Brooklyn, 
Tacoma, . 
Kansas City, 
Minneapolis, 
Minneapolis, 
St Paul, . 
Pittsburg, 
New York, 
New York, 
New York, 
New York, 
Oakland, 
Los Angeles, 
Fort Wayne, 
Fort Wayne, 
Boston, . t 
Boston, 
Boston, 
Brooklyn, 
Washington, 
Washington, 
Cincinnati, 
Sioux City, 
St. George's, Grenad 
Victoria, . 
Los Angeles, 
Montreal, . 
Seattle, 
San Diego, 
San Diego, 
New York, 
Philadelphia, 
Portland, . 
New York, 
New York, 
Washington, 



New York. 



Washington. 

Missouri. 

Minnesota. 



Pennsylvania. 
New York. 



California. 

Indiana. 

Massachusetts. 



New York 
D. C. 

Ohio. 

Iowa. 

B. W. I. 

British Columbia. 

California. 

Canada 

Washington. 

California. 

New York. 
Pennsylvania. 
Oregon 
New York. 

D. C. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 13 

EXECUTIVE NOTICE. 

Theosophical Society. 

President's Office, 

Adyar, 27th May. i8gj. 

The Managers of the World's Parliament of Religions having granted us 
permission to present the views and policy of our Society with respect to the 
questions of Religion and Ethics, on the 15th and 16th September next at 
Chicago, the undersigned, being prevented by his Asiatic engagements from 
personally attending, hereby deputes Mr. William Q. Judge, Vice-President T. 
S., to represent him on that occasion. All steps heretofore taken by Mr. Judge 
in connection with the said representation, in pursuance of his correspondence 
with the undersigned, including the formation of Committees, are hereby 
ratified, and he is fully empowered as the President's substitute to adopt such 
further measures in the premises as may to him seem necessary. Of course it is 
to be distinctly understood that nothing shall be said or done by any Delegate 
or Committee of the Society to identify it. as a body, with any special form of 
religion, creed, sect, or any religious or ethical teacher or leader ; our duty being 
to affirm and defend its perfect corporate neutrality in these matters. 

The undersigned also deputes Mrs. Annie Besant as a special Delegate from 
the President, to address the meetings in question on behalf of the whole Society, 
and to convey to them his fervent hope that this truly representative Theo- 
sophical assembly of people of all races and religions may result in the spread of 
that principle of brotherly love and religious tolerance which is the foundation 
and cornerstone of the Theosophical Society. 

The undersigned most earnestly calls upon all Sections, Branches, and willing 
Fellows of the Society throughout the world to put themselves in correspondence 
with Mr. Vice President Judge, and do all that lies within their power to aid him 
in bringing this very important matter to a successful result. 

Henry S. Olcott. 
President Theosophical Society. 

The Parliament, September iith, at io a. m. 
The Theosophical Delegates were invited to attend, and Prof. 
Gyanendra N. Chakravarti and William Q. Judge, Vice-President 
T. S., were at the opening and sat on the platform. In response to 
the general address of welcome Professor Chakravarti spoke as 
follows : 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — I represent a religion 
the dawn of which vanishes into the mists of antiquity which the 
microscope of your modern historical research has not yet been 
able to descry. I come from the city of Allahabad, the capital 
of the Northwestern Provinces of India, the Hindu name of 
which is Pryaga. It is called the Tvitha-raja, or the king of the 
different places of pilgrimage, as it is situated on the confluence of 
two of the most sacred rivers of the Hindus — the Ganges and the 
Jumna. From time immemorial, in various systems of religion 
Spirit is represented by the white and Matter by the dark color, 
and these two rivers, from the difference in their colors, represent 
Spirit and Matter, the two great factors in the evolution of the 
universe. And when I think that here, in this city of Chicago, the 
centre of material civilization, the vortex of physicality, you have 
the Parliament of Religions holding its sessions,— when I think 
that in the very heart of the World's Fair, teeming with that vast 
machinery which administers to the flesh, you have provided a hall 
for thefeast of reason and the flow of soul, I am reminded of mv 



14 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

native home, for here once more I see the sister streams of Spirit 
and Matter, of pure intellectuality and physicality, running side by 
side and representing one of the grandest truths. I need hardly 
tell you that in holding a parliament of all the different religions 
of the world — Christian and non-Christian — you have acted in a 
manner worthy of the race that leads the van of modern civiliza- 
tion, one of the remarkable features of which is an ever-widening 
tolerance. In inviting men of all shades of religious opinions and 
beliefs — aye, even a heathen like myself — you have acted in a man- 
ner worthy of the motherland of the Theosophical Society, the 
fundamental docrine of which is that underneath the superficial 
strata of every religion is the water of Truth, and to represent 
which, as well as Brahminism, I am here amongst you to-day. I 
have always felt that there is a subtle bond of unity between 
India and America, and it is probable that there may be a finer 
reason for the identity of our names than the theory of chance or 
the mistake of Columbus can account for. It is true that I belong 
to a race decrepit and bent with age, and that you form a race full 
of the vigor of youth and bristling with life ; and yet who has not 
observed the secret sympathy that sometimes exists between extreme 
old age and childhood ? One of the most striking characteristics of 
the Hindu race has been its longing after something vague, shad- 
owy, indistinct, which exists not on the plane of Matter, and the 
mind is therefore trained to look inward for that something which 
alone could make it happy. It is this tendency that has given rise 
to the innumerable schools of occultism, the various systems of 
philosophy, and to the manifold grades of sad/ius, sanyasis and fakirs 
that flourish on my native soil. You, on the other hand, have de- 
veloped such stupendous momentum on the plane of Matter, such 
immense kinetic energy on the plane of the intellect, that a stranger 
landing on your shores is amazed at their intensity. And yet> 
amidst the glorious miracles of your steam and electricity, I could 
sense in the atmosphere a certain undefined yearning toward 
something not yet attained ; a feeling of disappointment and de- 
spair arising from the realization of the truth that progress in these 
lines alone means but running against the dead wall of Matter,, 
and that through the vistas of spiritual perception alone can shine 
the light that can make life happy. In all the places I have visited 
I found an ever-increasing readiness to listen to and assimilate 
spiritual truths regardless of the source from which they ema- 
nated, and this I regard as a most significant sign of the times. 
For even now I can see through the gray but thinning mists of 
prejudice which are yet hanging on the horizon, the grandest event 
of the future — the union of the East and the West. As the sun 
rises from the East, so the dawn of truth heralds from the East. 
To the East is given the sacred satisfaction of having given birth 
to all the great religions of the world, and to the West belongs the 
proud privilege of having supplied the world with all that can 
make physical life comfortable and even luxurious. But as per- 
fection cannot be attained in humanity or in the universe (for 
what is true in the microcosm must also be true in the macrocosm) 
without a harmonious blending of Spirit and Matter, it is my fervent 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 15 

hope that the East and the West may join hands, each giving 
to the other what it needs, — the West supplying the East with 
energy, vigor, and power of organization, and the East opening up 
for the West its vast treasures of spiritual lore locked up in treas- 
ure boxes grown rusty with age. And I hope that with the open- 
ing of this Parliament of Religions to-day will begin the work of 
unsealing that great Fountain of Truth from which will flow 
perennially living waters of peace and joy to comfort the millions 
of thirsty souls in the century to come. 

THE CONGRESS T. S. 

First Session, September 15TH, 10 a. m. 

The President of the Parliament being occupied at the time, 
the local chairman, Brother George E. Wright, took the chair in 
order to open the meeting and give the gavel to the Vice-Presi- 
dent, making the following address : 

Brothers and Sisters — It affords me great pleasure on behalf 
of the organization to call the meeting to order and to inaugurate 
the Theosophical Congress. Can we or do we fully appreciate 
the importance of this occasion ? We who participate in this great 
Congress of Religions are makers of history. No event in ancient 
or modern times has been of such direct benefit to the human race 
as a whole, as will be this. What makes the case peculiar is that 
we are standing on the threshold of a new era, an era of liberality 
in thought, in investigation, in religion, of calm and unbiased com- 
parison. As Theosophists we should be profoundly moved by this 
great change that has come over religious thought, and especially 
thankful should we be that we are permitted to take part in this 
grand reformatory movement. Our dream is indeed realized ; 
what we hoped for, but hardly dared expect, is coming to pass. 
The Theosophical idea takes its place along with the other religious 
and philosophical concepts in the World's Parliament of Religions, 
and appeals equally with them to the consideration of all thinking 
people. 

So far as our position in the Parliament is concerned, nothing 
more could be desired. Every courtesy has been extended to our 
Society and to our Committee by the General Committee of the 
Religious Department, and in addition to the two days' Congress 
to be held in this room, we have been assigned the great Hall of 
Washington on Saturday evening for a general presentation of 
Theosophy. On that occasion it is expected that several of our 
most eloquent speakers will be present. The name of Annie 
Besant is alone sufficient to arouse public enthusiasm; and besides 
we will have our respected Vice-President, Mr. Judge, and our 
beloved brother, Chakravarti, from India. It is one of the great 
features of Theosophy that it appeals to the reason instead of to 
the emotions. Nothing could be more absolutely logical than the 
doctrines of Karma and Re-birth. Hence, during our meetings in 
this room the Theosophical ideas will be carefully and religiously 
announced, and all will be invited to give them due consideration. 



l6 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

Each paper to be presented has been prepared with the greatest 
pains, and every word that could be deemed superfluous has been 
left out. Indeed, so wide is the scope of the topics involved that 
only with the greatest difficulty could the entire programme be 
condensed into the five sessions allowed for our Congress. But on 
Saturday evening, in the Hall of Washington, will be given what 
might be termed a general review of the topics treated of exhaust- 
ively in the Congress, and the speakers whom I have named will 
prove that Theosophy is not necessarily a dry system of meta- 
physics, but has in it all elements requisite for the most interesting 
narrative and the most thrilling eloquence. 

I now have the pleasure of introducing the permanent chairman 
of the Congress, one who is known the world over as an indefati- 
gable worker in the cause of Theosophy, a lover of truth and a hater 
of religious shams, the friend and coadjutor of the founders of the 
Theosophical Society, and, I may add, the leading organizer of the 
Society, William Q. Judge. 

Brother William Q. Judge took the chair, and addressed the 
meeting as follows : 

Brothers and Sisters— It is a very high honor to me to be 
allowed to preside over this Congress. It is a triumph for the 
Theosophical Society to be permitted to hold this Congress after 
eighteen years of violent abuse and ridicule continued up to the 
last moment ; and we may consider that the Theosophical Society, 
after all these years of persistent work, has at last got a footing in 
the West. It always has had it in the East, but now at last we 
have it here. And I think the best thing to do to-day is to proceed 
at once to business. More is done and accomplished by work than 
by compliments and speeches one to another. We are all supposed 
to be brothers and sisters together and not to need flattery, or at 
least we ought not to need it ; we ought not to ask it. I only have 
to say that I am very glad personally to be able to preside over 
you, but I should be just as. well pleased if any of you were 
selected to have this position. 

Mr. Wright has given you an outline of this Congress. Perhaps 
it may seem to some singular that the Theosophical Society should 
be in a religious parliament, because we have no creed and have 
always said that we were not a religious body. But we hold that 
religion and science and human life cannot be separated from each 
other, and for that reason when the Parliament of all the Religions 
of the World comes together it is very proper that the Society, the 
only one in the world which represents th.e union of science and 
religion, should be represented in it, and we were very fortunate 
in being allowed to be represented on that basis and on no 
other. 

This Congress has been sanctioned by the President of the 
Theosophical Society. That sanction was necessary because we 
should not go into a Parliament of Religions without the sanction 
of our own President, who has deputed Mrs. Annie Besant to 
represent him as special delegate. He has deputed me to repre- 
sent the Theosophical Society throughout the world, as he himself, 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 17 

being so far away, could not come here. The other delegates 
whom we have here, as already mentioned, are Brother Chakravarti, 
from Allahabad, India, who is in a peculiar position in this Con- 
gress. His position is that he is a delegate from the Theosophical 
Society, not particularly from India: he comes from India, requested 
and brought here by the whole Society to represent his form of 
Theosophy before us, but he is the delegate of the entire Society. 
Mrs. Annie Besant is the delegate of the European Section, together 
with Miss F. Henrietta Muller and Mrs. Isabel Cooper-Oakley of 
London. These ladies were appointed delegates by the European 
Section at the last Congress, which was held there in July. Mrs. 
Cooper-Oakley, who is one of our leading members and who has 
been traveling all over the world in behalf of the Theosophical 
Society, has also been especially delegated by the Australian 
Branches. In addition to these particular delegates we will have 
as speakers a member of the Chicago Branch, Mrs. Thirds ; a 
member of the Cincinnati Branch, Dr. Buck ; a member of the 
San Francisco Branch on the Pacific Coast, Dr. Anderson ; and a 
member who has come from London, Mr. Claude F. Wright. 
Thus we have representatives and speakers from almost every 
part of the world to take part in this Congress. I have asked my 
brother Claude Wright to relieve my voice by acting as my secre- 
tary at this meeting, and after Mrs. Besant shall have read to you 
a message, he will read to you some credentials which we have and 
Colonel Olcott's executive order, so as to make this meeting per- 
fectly regular. I now ask you to give your attention to Mrs. Annie 
Besant, who will read a message sent to us by Colonel Olcott, 
President of the Society, from Adyar, Madras, India. 

Mrs. Besant — I have in my hands from Colonel Henry S. 
Olcott, the President- Founder of the Society, a message of 
greeting to all assembled here and of congratulation upon our 
gathering, which has been received by cable in code form. Being 
translated, it is : 

PRESIDENT T. S. TO CONGRESS. 

To William Q. Judge, Vice-Pres. T. S.: 

Across seas and continents your Asiatic brethren salute you; 
mingling their congratulations with yours for this auspicious 
opportunity to tell the representatives of many nations and of the 
world's great faiths the fraternal message of Theosophy. From 
ancient temples and rock-cut fanes the voices of the ancient Teach- 
ers once more utter the words of wisdom that showed our ancestors 
the true path to happiness, liberation, and spiritual peace. May 
the blessing of the Sages be with you all, and may the truth pre- 
vail. H. S. Olcott, P. T. S. 
Headquarters T. S., Adyar, Madras, September 15, 1893. 

Mr. Claude F. Wright then read the President's Executive 
Order and the various credentials of delegates, which are found in 
the Appendix. 



15 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

Mr. Judge — You will please now give your attention to Brother 
Gyanendra N. Chakravarti, of Allahabad, India, who will speak to 
you under the head of the programme which you have. I would like 
to ask you to be as quiet as possible, because this hall is a bad hall 
to speak in at any time; and with these trains constantly running, it 
is worse; so if yoa will all keep very quiet you will reduce difficul- 
ties to a minimum. 

THE THEOSOPHICAL DOCTRINE OF THE UNITY OF 

ALL SPIRITUAL BEINGS; THE ETERNAL UNITY OF 

SPIRIT AND MATTER AS TAUGHT IN THE 

BRAHMANICAL SCRIPTURES. 



PROF. GYANENDRA N. CHAKRAVARTI, OF ALLAHABAD, INDIA. 



The Professor began by reciting the following Sanscrit verse: 

Nayamatma pravachanen labhyas na medhya na bahuna srutena 
yamebaishavrinute ten labhyas tasyaiva atma vrinute tanum swam. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters — That is a sloka 
from one of the most sacred of the world's sacred literature. It is from 
one of the sublimest books of India's bibliography, a book which was 
ever the guiding star of the life of one of the greatest of Europe's 
thinkers — Schopenhauer — I mean the Upanishads of the Hindus. 
It means that the Atma, the Spirit, is something which cannot be 
understood either by words or by hearing or by intellect. They 
alone who resort to the spirit have the light of the spirit brought 
to their own spirit. This being the view of things, and the Theo- 
sophic spirit in the West being but another name for the Atma of 
the Vedas, the high essence of spirit, I need not tell you that this 
is something which cannot be brought down on the plane of a 
speech, or even on the plane of the intellect. True Theosophy in 
its esoteric aspect is the eternal, the undying truth, the sun of that 
permanent verity which shines always, from the begin- 
ning of things to the end of things, and from the 
end of things again to the beginning of things. True 
it is that in different ages and in different times men of high spir- 
itual culture, born with a mission in their breasts, have taught this 
truth on the plane of intellect, but the spirit, as the verse of the 
Upanishads says, can be cognized only by the spirit. Once in the 
plane of intellect, it ceases to be spirit. The different religions of 
the world, the various teachings which now supply the spiritual 
pabulum to the world, are not the sun of which I have talked to 
you. The religions represent but one ray of but one aspect of that 
sun of truth, passed through the lenses of several glasses, and having 
thus the light more or less destroyed in passing to the plane of the 
intellect, the plane of thought and the plane of words. The differ- 
ent teachers of the world, according to the necessities of the times, 
according to the conditions of life with which they are surrounded, 
according to the light which glows in them, have given to the 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 19 

world but one side of the truth, a mere sign-post, a finger-post to 
lead one on the path at the end of which alone you can find the 
eternal truth. In the East, in the West, and all over the world 
such men have been born. Call them by whatsoever name you 
choose, prophets and seers, martyrs and saints, Buddhas and 
Rishis have lived in this world to give expression to this truth, 
goaded on, impelled by something within them to leave some 
material representation of that which is unrepresentable, to serve 
as a help for men to get behind the physical universe. 

Theosophy, then, in its highest aspect is unrepresentable, is in- 
effable, and can be realized by the spirit alone, not by mind or 
thought. And yet the fact remains that Theosophy is to-day a 
living thing, a thing that is now sinking into and permeating the 
most advanced thought both in the East and West. What is that 
Theosophy, then ? It is again an attempt made to bring that truth 
in some form down to the plane of intellect, the attempt of modern 
Theosophy, and a most glorious attempt in my opinion it is, to 
once more bring home to the minds of the people that behind the 
more or less translucent veils of every religion shines the glorious 
sun of truth. It is attempted once more to make the followers of 
every denomination of religion to realize and feel that spiritual 
knowledge as spiritual composition, as spiritual inspiration, as 
spiritual revelation, is not the birthright of one particular set of 
people, of one particular part of the earth's surface. And need I 
tell you that if Theosophy has stopped at this very point, if it stops 
merely with the formulation of this one doctrine, its aim would be 
as grand as can be conceived. Why, look only at the reddened 
pages of history, how religious warfares have marred and stained 
the history of mankind because of the non-realization and non- 
perception of this one grand truth. Religions which are supposed 
to teach charity, brotherliness, divine love, have been set one against 
the other like the roaming fierce tigers of the jungle. They have 
pounced upon one another. Instead of extending love, they have 
torn men to pieces. Bear in mind what history shows you, what 
misfortune has been wrought by the elimination of this principle, 
and you will cease to wonder when I claim for Theosophy that even 
if it stopped at the initiation of this one principle, it is entitled to 
the admiration and lo the reverence of the whole world. But it 
does not stop there. It does not stop merely by laying down an 
axiom as to which you may inquire and inquire rightly : where is 
the true evidence ? It tries to give to the world certain methods by 
which they can more or less rend asunder the veil in their own re- 
ligion which hides that eternal light ; it serves as a pioneer to 
persons treading the dreary path of life, telling them that below 
these many colored superficial strata of their own religions, which 
may differ in external composition, if they dig deep enough they 
will find the living waters of truth. And it does more. It teaches 
you how to dig ; it supplies you with the axe and spade with which 
you can cut the surface of every religion and see yourselves and 
show the world at large that the living waters are no fiction ; they 
are a reality, having in them power and capacity to quench the 
thirst of the human race. It thus not only gives you an axiomatic 



20 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

truth, but puts forward a body of doctrines, in an imperfect way- 
it may be, because all on the plane of intellectualism which will 
make you see your own religion offers to you the same fundamen- 
tal truths which you can find in every religion in the world ; and 
this, I say, is one of the important factors of the Theosophical 
organization. 

Theosophy is following the time-honored and the sublimest doc- 
trines of the Brahmans of India, who, as you know, have never 
from the very dawn of their ancient religion tried to persuade men 
and the followers of any religion to give up their own and take up 
another. Brahmanism to-day stands as it did thousands, millions 
of years ago, the only religion in the world which is non-proselyt- 
izing. It does not try to bring men away from the paths which 
have been indicated by the sages that have been born among them; 
it does not try to draw them away from the principles which have 
been enunciated for the particular benefit of particular countries 
and particular surroundings. It says that in your own religion, if 
you dig deep enough, you will find the truth. And it is laid down 
most emphatically in one of the most sacred works of the Hindus 
that (Sanscrit) 

Swadharme nidhanam sreya paradharma bhayavaha. 

" It is best to die in one's own faith ; the faith of another is full of 
dangers." 

Starting, then, with this principle of exoteric and esoteric The- 
osophy, you will understand that Theosophy is at once a religion 
and not a religion. In its higher aspect, as I have just now defined 
it, it is at once the final source of all religions. In its lower and 
popular aspect, it is no religion at all, because it is the congeries of 
all religions. It shows, as I have told you, that every religion has 
its place in the universe and every religion has its particular func- 
tions to perform. This view of religion is almost a necessary con- 
sequence of some of the fundamental doctrines which Theosophy 
tries to press forward on the views of the world. You are aware, 
very likely, that the first principle of Theosophy, or, at least, the 
first rule which every brother is bound to be guided by in the or- 
ganization of the Theosophical Society, is the principle of Univer- 
sal Brotherhood. Why Theosophy requires that each man stands 
to every other man, never mind where his home may be, across 
oceans and continents, it may be, still distance is nothing to spirit ; 
each man stands to every other man in the relation of a brother, 
tied together by a common chain of gold, coming out of one eter- 
nal spiritual source, working hand in hand and side by side through 
the course of evolution, and finally returning hand in hand again, 
to that eternal source from which he came. Nor does the idea of 
brotherhood restrict itself to the human kingdom alone. Theoso- 
phy extends its idea of brotherhood very much further. It teaches 
that in every animal, from the very highly developed organism to 
the merest protoplasm in which the current of life is just starting, 
which is just emerging from the state of vegetation, there is the 
ineffable, the all-pervading spirit which beats in the breast of every 
man. It regards every animal that walks the jungles or adorns the 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 2 1 

domestic hearth as one which is merely waiting its time to reach 
the same amount of advancement and progress that has been made 
by the paragon of animals — the human being. Nay, it goes far- 
ther: — that every animal is a candidate for those diviner perfec- 
tions, for those higher states of existence, to which humanity has 
not yet attained. This law proclaims to you that every animal is 
to you a brother pilgrim, belated, behind, it is true, but deserving 
of greater pity, greater consideration from the mere fact of its be- 
ing an animal. (Applause.) 

One step further and where do you go ? There are no walls 
hiding the spirit of brotherhood and Theosophy. The walls that 
exist in art, in science, in society are all down ; the spirit of love 
expands, and where does it go, think you? Why, it pervades the 
universe, becomes co-extensive with every atom that you can or 
cannot see, every insect that breathes, and beyond. Where is the 
importance of that grand doctrine which has been taught from time 
immemorial in the East to man : Man, thou art not alone, thou art 
one of the several thousands of millions of beings co-existing, one 
with them ; because thou art God and they are God. God per- 
vades the whole universe, and the universe itself is God. That is 
the doctrine which Theosophy teaches, that is the doctrine of the 
glorious teachers which I stand here to-day to bring to you, to the 
Western homes of the people. 

The principle of evolution, according to the Indian Shastras, is 
that there is but one eternal reality, one outbreatbing spirit, from 
which all that exists has come and into which all that exists will 
go back. At the beginning of time, forth from the bosom of Para- 
brahm, which, according to our notions, is the highest spirit, came 
two different aspects — the Purusha and the Prakriti. Purusha is 
the name of spirit, and Prakriti is the name of matter. We Hin- 
dus recognize no difference between spirit and matter ; we regard 
them as but two different facets of the one which alone exists 
behind all illusions ; we regard them as two poles of the same 
magnet ; we regard them as two points of electricity — that elec- 
tricity that America revels in to-day — the electricity of the positive 
field and the electricity of the negative field. Both are electricity, 
but exhibiting different functions. One attracts the other, and 
then from the point of contact passes the spark. There is Purusha 
exhibiting one kind of electricity, the positive, and there is Prak- 
riti exhibiting another kind of electricity, the negative. Attraction 
issues between these two ; lo ! forth comes the spark of the uni- 
verse. - That is the theory of evolution according to our Shastras. 
These are the two male and female principles which have been 
recognized in every old system of religion, wheresoever it may 
have flourished ; this is the doctrine that is represented in the 
various symbols that you see everywhere in the world ; and I ven- 
ture to say, although it may not be believed in the West, that your 
cross upon which the divine Jesus is said to have been crucified 
represents that very truth, the pole of the spirit acting on the pole 
-of matter, giving rise to the universe. The figyptian tau, the cross 
•on which is represented the serpent, represents the same truth ; it 
represents the evolution of the universe in transit, of which the 



22 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

snake is a representation. And this doctrine is the foundation of 
the whole structure of Brahmanism, which I am here to-day to 
represent on the platform of the Parliament of Religions. Thou- 
sands of thousands of pages I could quote for proving the sound- 
ness of my position, but it is for evident reasons perfectly useless. 
I shall quote only one, again from the Upanishads, which will show 
that what I have been stating to you is really the sound position. 

Anoraneean mahatomaheean atmasya juntor nihita guhayam turn 
akartu pasyati vitsokah dhatu prasadan mahimanatmanah. 

This spirit of which I have been talking, the smallest within the 
smallest atom, is greater than the greatest universe. It is, it is 
said, in the heart, in the nervous centre of every man and of every 
animal. This spirit is revealed to him who, having subdued the 
passions of the flesh, seeks to stand in its light. This, I think, will 
prove to you the soundness of my proposition. 

And now I pass on to give you a beautiful illustration from one 
of our sacred works. It may be said by some of those who are 
present here, or by those who may read what I have said : " Why,, 
you have been quoting this doctrine from the Upanishads, admit- 
tedly the most sacred of your books, and it may be that this is 
only an isolated gem in the vast rubbish of your theological litera- 
ture. I am now going to relate to you a story from the Puranas, 
which are regarded by others than Hindus as mere theological 
twaddle, the source of nursery tales and fables concocted in the 
brains of the baby race of humanity. Yes, I am going to quote to 
you a story from one of these Puranas, which are composed, as I 
conceive, to represent the same truths which are in the Vedas and 
Upanishads, but clothed in a separate garb, in allegories which are 
meant for the people, which gives them attraction and impels the 
people to listen to them and thus follow those truths. 

In the old times there was a great Adwaita king. By this 
Adwaita is personated materiality. This king, from wealth 
and luxury and pride, had forgotten there was any spiritual 
being greater than he was himself. He had, by the strange 
irony of fate, also explained in the Puranas, a son who, as chance 
or fate may have it, was a very devoted follower and worshiper of 
the god Vishnu. What an irony ! A being in the home of a mon- 
ster of infidelity and crime, a saint, this ornament of the Hindu 
world ; on the heap of ashes and rubbish around him shines forth 
a diamond of unparalleled lustre. From the very beginning this 
divine being lisps his first syllables in grammar in the name of 
Hari. The father learns of it and gets angry ; he calls his son's 
teachers to him and says : " How dare you teach my son this blas- 
phemy ? How dare you tell him of any being with power greater 
than myself? Dare you destroy my own idol and tear it from his 
heart, and set up there some one else ? " They swore they had done 
nothing of the sort ; the boy was the most peculiar in the world ;. 
they wanted him to recite syllables from the grammar for pronun- 
ciation and accent, but*, inattentive and deaf to all their trainings,, 
he would again recite the name of his very beloved Hari, the god 
whom he so loved. By his persistence in repeating the sacred 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 23 

name in the presence of his father, who could not bear that sound 
to be spoken in his presence, he got the boy hurled from the top of 
a precipice. Down he went from the precipice with a joyous heart, 
faith in his eternal Hari, and, lo ! he was in the lap of bis god, not 
a scratch on his skin, safe and sound he sat at the bottom. Other 
means were tried. He was taken in front of a mad elephant, with 
the object that the huge animal would make short work of him and 
tear him from flesh to bone. But the mad, ravenous elephant acted 
mildly with the devoted boy. It put forth its trunk, wrapped it 
around him, raised him and placed him upon his back, whereupon 
he rode triumphant upon the back of the elephant. Various 
devices were tried to kill this infant son of this wicked king, but 
firm as the rock of India did he remain. Never for a moment did 
fear enter his heart ; his faith was unflinching, his devotion warm 
and firm ; and who could destroy a boy like that ? Finally, driven 
to the last resources by his anger, the father got the boy to stand 
in his presence and said : "It is all an illusion ; it is all untrue. 
Where is j^our Hari? if there is that Hari, can you show him?" 
The boy replied : " Yes, I can, even before you, although you have 
defiled his holy blessings and his great name." The king said : 
"Well, if Hari can come, I want him to come forth from this stone 
pillar here/' and, lo and behold ! with a crash of thunder, the stone, 
unshaken and immovable, was rent in twain, giving way, and out 
leaped forth, in form majestic, the god Hari, before whom the 
whole world bows down. 

Now, I ask you, brothers and sisters, if you really regard this 
story as a necessary emanation of idolators, as some would have 
you believe ? Does it not convey even to your minds a truth which, 
though clothed in fable, it may be, still is burning in its vigor and 
in its energy ? And, ladies and gentlemen, here I stand to-day to 
talk to you, drawing from our matchless manuscripts in which is 
found the basis of religion, craving justice at your hands. I know 
you are liberal, you sons of America, sons of the land of freedom, 
the land of liberalism, the land of justice ! I crave no indulgence 
on the score of the religion's being old ; I crave no charity ! All I 
want is that you should not allow your minds to be prejudiced, to 
be poisoned and abused by the thousands of defamations and slan- 
ders that are cast at our religion. Let your own mind work, and 
then pronounce your dictum. I am here to-day to abide by it. 
(Applause.) 



24 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



THEOSOPHY IS A SYSTEM OF TRUTHS DISCOVER- 
ABLE AND VERIFIABLE BY PERFECTED MEN. 



These Truths are Preserved in Their Purity by the Great 

Brotherhood of Initiates, the Masters of Wisdom, who 

Promulgate Them More and More Fully as the 

Evolution of Man Permits. 



MRS. ANNIE BESANT. 



You have heard from our brother Chakravarti that fundamental 
teaching of philosophy which you may find, as he also told you, in 
every religion, be your religion what it may, that of the funda- 
mental unity of all lives, of the fundamental unity of spirit and 
matter, shown to us in the West in the writings of his own land, 
just as you might yourselves show it in the scripture that you in 
turn revere as divine. To my lot in these opening speeches of our 
Congress it falls as my duty to deal with Theosophy as a system 
of truths discoverable and verifiable by perfected men ; truths 
preserved in their purity by the great brotherhood, given out from 
time to time as the evolution of man permits the giving ; so that 
we are able to trace in all the religions the source whence they 
flow, the identical teaching which underlies them. Our position 
then as Theosophists is this : The truth is attainable by man — 
the truth as to the universe, as to man's nature, as to the relation- 
ship that exists between man and the universe that surrounds him ; 
that this is a matter, not of faith, but of. knowledge, not to be 
simply accepted on authority, but capable of discovery and 
capable of verification ; that religion loses much of its rightful 
force in the world if it is not regarded as a reality and a fact, a 
truth which men may in due course of time verify for themselves 
if they are willing to take the appropriate means, if they are 
willing to make the requisite endeavor ; so that we stand as 
believers in, and as very elementary exponents of, the mighty 
system which, as our brother told you, is the ancient religion of 
India, or science as well in his own land. And not in his land only, 
but in every land where man lived and aspired and yearned after 
knowledge and truth. For there is no land where the Spirit does 
riot speak, there is no land where the voice of the Divine may not 
be heard ; and if to-day the speech be somewhat clearer, it is not so 
much the difference in the speech as the difference in those who 
hear. The voice of the Spirit can be heard by no one save by him 
in whom that Spirit has become developed and able to understand. 
Now with regard to this system of truth, we allege that truth 
exists on all planes of the universe and may be studied on every 
plane. Without at this stage going into the enumeration which 
belongs to the later part of our exposition, it may suffice to make 
our position clear if I remind you that in the world generally you 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 25 

would admit the possibility of truth under a threefold division : 
truth as to the physical universe, of which the exponent is what we 
are apt to call in the West "science"; truth in the region of the 
intellect, which is regarded as philosophical ; truth in the region 
of the spiritual, which is put as especially belonging to religion. 
With us there are no such divisions, as Brother Judge told you in 
his opening words. To us there is one truth with many aspects, 
one truth manifesting itself on many planes. Religion is not apart 
from philosophy, nor philosophy from science ; nor is there antag- 
onism between them, nor possibility of contradiction and denial. 
They are, as it were, the three facets of truth, but one and the 
same, while the true aspect may be different, and to us Theosophy 
includes religion, philosophy, and science, truth attainable by man 
and verifiable by him over and over again. This truth we allege 
exists complete. A perfect knowledge of spiritual things, a perfect 
knowledge of intellectual verities, a perfect knowledge of scientific 
facts. This great body or system of truth has been discovered by 
perfected men, not only discovered, but verified over and over 
again, building that great system of truths, spiritual, intellectual, 
and material ; and nothing has been allowed to stand as a part 
thereof except such things as have been verified, experimented 
upon, redemonstrated by generations of seers, by one after another 
of this brotherhood of perfect men ; so that the very truth itself 
should lack no means of demonstration — demonstration more 
complete than anything that is dreamed of by Western science, 
arriving at certainty with regard to this great body of truth. 
Now in science we are accustomed to a definite statement of 
certain facts. Those we call scientists are fitted for their work. 
They have apparatus to aid them in their researches. When a 
discovery is made by one, then others try to reproduce it. The 
utmost skill of intellect and ingenuity is exerted in order that the 
most crucial experiments may be applied to test the value of the 
new discovery ; and only when the discovery, taken for a while as 
an hypothesis, has been reverified over and over again, is it per- 
mitted to rank as a part of scientific truth. But as every one must 
admit, such a body of truth obtained by struggle and endeavor, 
verified and reverified by trained and experienced scientists, the 
value of such a body of truth cannot be appreciated by the first 
comer, nor must anyone venture to say, merely because he is 
ignorant, " This or that cannot, I feel, be true." In the scientific 
world knowledge is the one authority ; ignorance has no right 
save the right of silence. But when men go out of the scientific 
world they seem to make their own ignorance the measure of 
truth (applause), and to take the right of the most dogmatic 
denial of all that does not come within the narrow limit which 
they have never really striven to extend. And with regard to 
spiritual truth the conditions are fundamentally the same as those 
which are necessary for the discovery, the verification, and the 
understanding of scientific truth. In the one case the scientist, 
with his delicate apparatus of lenses and of balance, with his 
careful fashions of analysis, with " the sublime patience of the 
investigator," as Clifford rightly called it ; and in the spiritual 



26 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

sphere sages work whose spiritual nature has been perfected, who 
have made for themselves the apparatus for spiritual investigation, 
not of lenses nor balance, but of the open eye of the spirit. And if 
for many a year a scientific man will struggle to perfect his instru- 
ment, if generation after generation the scientists of the West will 
give hours, months, years of patient trial to make but one tiny 
improvement in some piece of apparatus, that so great an exacti- 
tude may be established and truth more clearly seen, do you expect 
that in the sphere of the spiritual, as much above the intellectual 
as the intellectual is above the sensational, do you expect that less 
pains are needed there than are needed on the physical plane ? 
and that man without endeavor, man without toil, without self- 
sacrifice, and without self-abnegation, can gain knowledge mightier 
than the intellect, can dream of and perfect the spiritual faculties 
necessary for an appreciation of the truth? Science has her 
martyrs in every clime, science her pioneers, her pupils, her 
fighters ; and in the world of the spirit there is indeed a devotion 
vaster than science can inspire, dangers to be faced before which 
the dangers of earth are trifling, and only those whose heart is 
pure, only those whose will is strong, only those who for life after 
life have learned to conquer the material and the intellectual and 
gradually developed for themselves the spiritual faculties, only 
such men have power to discover, only such men have power to 
prove and verify. But in that every man is divine ; in that divine love 
is your heart and mine as much as the heart of the sage ; therefore 
we also can feel, if only temporarily, the pulses of that spiritual life 
urging us on always towards the realm of Spirit. And just in 
proportion as we feel them the vision begins to open, until we 
know of very certainty that spiritual truth is real and not a fable. 
(Applause.) But if this be not so, there is no such thing as religion. 
Unless the spiritual world be a reality, religion is the most terrible 
of hypocrisies. There has not been one great teacher, go back to 
the antiquity of Hinduism, come forward to the teacher who is 
most revered in the West, who has not, asserting his mission, 
justified it by the fact that he was the son of man, and that the 
fact of the sonship of humanity was the essential heart of divinity 
within him. Nay, in the lips of your own teacher the argument is 
found, " Greater works than mine shall ye do." And he claimed 
that they could follow where he had trodden. So that this 
underlies your faith as such, as it underlies any true faith in the 
world ; for the Christ is but humanity perfected, the first fruits of 
the promise of what every child of man may be. And this mighty 
heritage of truth, discovered and verified in long past ages in 
order that the child race of man might be shown the road along 
which it was to travel ; that great heritage of truth, preserved by 
the brotherhood of perfect men, has been the basis of every religion. 
In Hinduism, the most ancient religion of our own fifth race, you 
find it, if you search for it carefully in the scriptures which have 
been the guide, the sustenance, the help of millions upon millions 
of the most acute brains as well as the most spiritual hearts that 
our race has produced. In all the ages there have been the 
teachers holding out the truth and giving it out just as far as man 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 27 

was able to receive it ; and as the careful mother, the careful 
teacher of the child guides the feeble steps along the path of 
learning, so that, at each step, clear knowledge may reach the 
child, and that with each new step, still clearer the light may 
come ; so these elder brothers of our race who have perfected their 
own natures live in the world in order that their younger brothers 
may have the advantage of their guidance. Take the scriptures of 
the world — Brahmanic and Buddhist, Hebrew and Christian — take 
what you will, every one of them has the same teaching, and 
whence the identity if the source be diverse? Not only so, but in 
philosophy and in science, if you will read your history with eyes 
opened instead of closed, you will see before each great impulse of 
philosophical and scientific thought the coming of some one who 
suggests possibilities, who throws out hints, who works marvels, 
and so gives new impulse to the advanced thought of the world. 
You have had it in the great philosophic schools, in the schools of 
Egypt, the schools of Greece ; and then you may trace it down- 
wards and find scholars continually repeating great spiritual, 
philosophic, and scientific truths ; and so we begin to understand 
how our evolution has been guided. We begin to realize why it 
is to-day there is this anxiety to know something more of truth, 
something clearer and more definite of this science of the soul. 
The science of the soul in Hindustan, later in Greece named 
Theosophy, now again proclaimed under the Grecian name as 
more easily familiar to our Western ears, proclaimed to-day newly, 
indeed, but only the old brought forth anew, for in our teachings 
there is nothing new ; in our teaching there is nothing save that 
which has been proclaimed over and over again wherever the 
human heart was ready to listen, wherever the eyes of the soul 
were open to see the light. And if to-day these truths are more 
widely spread than ever, which is true, for the veil between the 
esoteric and exoteric has been made somewhat thinner, it is because 
the point has been reached at which the spiritual soul is becoming 
more manifest in man, and so with less of allegory and fable the 
same old truth may be proclaimed in the ears of men. Therefore 
in the end of the nineteenth century the same old Masters of 
Wisdom, who had founded Hinduism, who had founded Buddhism, 
who had founded Christianity, who had founded the other great 
religions of the world, have in these later days again initiated a 
spiritual movement to give further impulse to spiritual knowledge 
and to call men nearer to the home where alone their souls will find 
eternal peace. It is the same ancient home, it is the same birth- 
place of our race ; but we have forgotten our birthplace, and so the 
words that again speak of it sound strange. They send once 
more their message to proclaim these same old truths, to initiate 
once more a movement in order that that movement may attract 
all who are ready to take in its real and spiritual form. They 
proclaim the old message from the lips of one whose name will be 
familiar to many here present — Helena Petrovna Blavatsky — to 
whom many of us owe our very knowledge of the life of the soul, 
and whose memory we therefore reverence as more than the 
memory of a mother ; for the mother gives life to the body, but 



28 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

the spiritual teacher awakes the soul. And therefore while we 
claim for her no authority, while we ask no one to accept her save 
as she herself may win acceptance by the word she utters ; while 
we do not ask that any shall take her as authority, for authority 
lies in the message and not in the messenger, and the recognition 
comes from the soul and the memory, and from nothing in the 
life without — still we pay that fitting reverence and gratitude to the 
channel which those of us have a right to do who have found it 
has brought to us the very waters of life. And so, thus regarding 
her, we carry on the reverence to those who sent her and who have 
not forgotten their younger brothers nor grudged to them the help 
they need. And thus we stand to-day witnesses for the existence 
of spiritual truth ; witnesses to the possibility of the understanding 
of that truth by men ; witnesses of the existence of these perfected 
sages who help humanity on its upward climb and show the light 
to all who are willing to see. And to you of different faiths, to you 
of different modes we say, You are not different, for your spirit is 
one with ours. Our language may sometimes differ from yours. 
What is language? It is that which divides, while the spiritual 
truth unites, and thus it applies to any other race and any other 
creed. Our religions in their names are different ; in their essence 
they are one. We have on our platform men and women also who 
are one in our recognition of the truth. We know no division ; 
we have learned to transcend it. We have no separation ; the 
spirit is one only. And those who have been taught, those who 
have learned, they are all one mighty body for the service of the 
world ; and in truth those we speak of as Masters, those we speak 
of as Initiates, they claim as a far nobler title to be the brothers 
and the servants of men. (Applause.) 

HEVAVITARANA DHARMAPALA, F. T. S., OF CEYLON. 

Brothers and Sisters — A philosophical exposition of this 
grand subject of Theosophy is not within my province. Abler 
minds are here to give a Theosophic exposition of that beautiful 
subject. I am here as a Buddhist. I come to attend the religious 
Congress as such ; but I am here to-day to express my deepest 
sympathy, my deepest, I should say, allegiance to the Theosophic 
cause, simply because it made me to respect my own religion. And 
now look : there are Brahmans here on this platform, and here are 
my sweet sister, Mrs. Muller, and my brother Chakravarti, one a 
Brahman and the other a Christian, and by the study of Theo- 
sophy she loves it just now more than she used to do. I was in 
school and read the name of the Theosophical Society, and when 
the Theosophical Society arrived, especially the Theosophic found- 
ers, we welcomed them and Mme. Blavatsky to Ceylon. They 
came there with a message of peace and love. They said, " Study 
your own religion ; abuse not the religions of others, and try to 
find out the truth : but lead a pure life." That was the message 
they brought to Ceylon, and it was so sweet and so nice I accepted 
that common teaching, and here I am to-day as evidence of that 
fact. Beyond that I am not prepared to speak to-day. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 29 



THEOSOPHY AS FOUND IN THE HEBREW BOOKS 

AND IN THE NEW TESTAMENT OF THE 

CHRISTIANS. 



MISS F. HENRIETTA MULLER, OF LONDON. 



Religion is to be defined as "the Culture of the Soul "' ; Revela- 
tion, whether written or traditional, is the knowledge requisite for 
such culture. 

The aim, therefore, and the intention of all Scripture is the 
instruction of the Soul ; therefore, also, Scripture addresses itself 
directly to the soul and not to the senses ; its meaning can be 
apprehended fully by the soul alone, its language is spiritual and 
veiled as the Soul's own language and Being are spiritual and 
veiled. The key to the inner meaning of Scripture must be 
sought through and beyond the outer in which Revelation clothes 
itself, every interpretation of the intuition being sifted and modi- 
fied, and rejected or accepted on its own merits by the Mental 
Faculty. 

Again, Revelation may be defined as an Intuition of the Kos- 
mos, which reveals itself in and through the Primeval Conscious- 
ness of Mankind. It is distinctly traceable in the history of 
nations ; its sign and symbol may be observed appearing at various 
times and in various forms ; like a golden thread it may be seen 
running through the life history of a race or people, now shin- 
ing clear in full light of noon, now temporarily lost in the gloom 
of night. Such Kosmic Intuition reaches down to and is the voice 
of Deity. It is One and Eternal, Undivided, Homogeneous. It is 
untouched by its own manifesting activities, or by its own assump- 
tion of heterogeneity, thus differentiating only in its manifested form, 
not in its essential Being. Now the measure of manifestation in a 
given direction or time, since it varies not with or by Kosmic 
Intuition or Being, necessarily varies only with and by the nature 
of its medium or channel, and it follows that, all Revelation being 
one per se, the measure of the truth of any given religion is solely 
regarded by the receiving capacity of a given people at a given 
time. 

The capacity to receive Divine Truth varies greatly with dif- 
ferent nations, and even with the same nation at different periods 
of its growth. Compare, for instance, the condition of the Jewish 
people in this respect with the races and peoples who surrounded 
them, or their condition at the time of Christ and that of the 
American people to-day — the Jews bound fast by the chains of a 
degraded tradition, enslaved by material or sensual tendencies, 
blinded and misled by their own corrupt priesthood, who riveted 
their chains only too securely by enforcing the fulfilment of the 
letter of the law and denying the spirit ; compare that period 
of their history with this epoch-making event which gathers us 
here together from all parts of the world, which exhibits the people 



30 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

of America as ready to hear and to learn the truth from what- 
ever country it comes, as seeking its common basis in all the 
religions of the world. This occasion may be taken as a portent 
of the future religious history of America, as a measure of their 
capacity to hear and to receive Divine Truth. Am I taking too 
sanguine a view when I say that America may one day accept joy- 
fully the head cornerstone which was rejected by the builders in 
Palestine 2,000 years ago, that the Christ whom the Jews crucified is 
the Christ whom the sons and daughters of your land are seeking ? 

The Divine Idea develops itself and the Pathway of God may 
be known — sometimes through the permanence and unfolding of 
a great national ideal, sometimes constructively in the history of a 
people, sometimes through their discipline or dispersion ; it 
exhibits itself often in and by the lives of their great men. The 
ideal of Abraham was to build up a people of strength, to mould 
the national character on a lasting foundation ; and his Thought 
or Idea implanted there on the plastic nature of the undeveloped 
race has endured throughout the ages and distinguishes the Jews 
to-day. Moses sought to construct a great and free nation. 
Liberty was the leading characteristic of his scheme. The Divine 
Idea thus manifested always involved a constant reciprocal in- 
fluence between the Great Personality embodying it and the com- 
munity receiving it. Through all the line of Jewish Prophets the 
same theme runs ; it can be traced in their language, science, art, 
culture, and mythology of the people, more distinctly, perhaps, in 
the lives of the Great Personalities of Jewish history, Abraham, 
Moses, Elijah, and Jeremiah. 

To any Theosophist the identity of function and nature of the 
Jewish Prophet and Indian Rishi are undeniable. What the Rishis 
were to the Indian peoples whom they ruled and taught, that the 
Prophets were to the Jews, — Sages endowed with gifts of prophecy 
and other spiritual powers, holding communion with God, living 
amongst the people, giving them spiritual teaching, possessing and 
exercising temporal power as rulers and kings, creating and mould- 
ing the national character, and imprinting upon it in all its purity 
that Divine Idea which they had themselves received of God. Both 
Prophets and Rishis were sent to the nations who needed them in 
their infancy as the child needs the guidance and personal care of its 
parents ; both were withdrawn from it when their task was done. 

The definitions given above of Religion and Revelation are 
fundamental ; they involve no less than seven principles generally 
accepted by Theosophists, which in their full meaning and in the 
main are denied by orthodoxy. 

(1) They involve the belief that it is not in the external form, 
nor in the literal meaning of scripture, that Divine Light is to be 
sought, but that the letter conceals a profundity of inner Truth re- 
quiring an esoteric key for its interpretation. Without this key 
which the intuition alone can supply there is danger of grave error. 
Of the early Christian Fathers, Athanasius was not the only 
one to utter a note of warning that by a literal, i. e. t non-esoteric or 
purely rational understanding of the Bible, one may be led to form 
an almost blasphemous conception of Deity, as a cruel and false god. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 3 1 

(2) They involve the oneness of Deity in that it underlies im- 
mediately all manifestation, that in it all opposites are united 
and the independent existence of evil as a principle is denied. 

(3) They exhibit the duality of Deity as at once and eternally 
the unmanifest and noumenal, and the manifest and phenomenal. 

(4) The absoluteness of Deity in that it is untouched and un- 
changed by its own manifestation. 

(5) The Divinity of Man and the Humanity of God. " God's 
highest revelation is Man." "Perfect Man is Highest God ." 

(6) The Law of Analogy or Correspondence, which by postulat- 
ing the simultaneous unity and duality of God enjoins us to seek 
below that which is above, and above that which is below, to learn 
to know the Macrocosm by and through the Microcosm, to attain 
universal wisdom through individual self-knowledge. 

(7) All scriptures are therefore true esoterically, and falsified 
only exoterically by the imperfect nature of the personality through 
which they are revealed. All saviours of men are " Christ," al- 
though they may not even know his name. 

Professor Buchanan of Boston says : 

" I have a profound reverence for the Mexican god Quetzalcoatl, for the 
Indian Krishna, and for Jesus, but the man of Nazareth is the one who comes 
nearest to us, my soul goes out to him in love. I look upon these three great 
systems (the Mexican, the Hindu, and the Christian) as three distinct earthly 
evolutions of our religion, inspired by and sustained from heaven." 

Which is to say that Christian Theosophy in Palestine, in India, 
and in Mexico are all substantially the same thing — all are revela- 
tions of God through the Divine Teacher who is Christ. 

Were it not so, the Parliament of Religions would be impos- 
sible. 

It is only because the intuition of our humanity is now no 
longer, as formerly it was, under the Mayavic sway of the false 
appearance of difference between religions that it has at last attained the 
power to dispel Maya, to penetrate the illusion, and to perceive the 
inner truths essential to all religions ; this precious ray of wisdom, 
hitherto the possession only of the elect, the Seers, Prophets, or 
Rishis of the race, is now becoming the heritage of all enlightened 
persons. 

Thus it is demonstrable that it is only by virtue of the develop- 
ment of spiritual light in the West that this Parliament is realized ; 
it is only because progress in the inner planes of our being has 
moved forward along with progress on the outer planes that it has 
become possible and practicable. Each member of this Parliament 
is contributing to the onward movement which will ultimately 
reach its climax in a recognition of the spiritual kinship of the 
race ; each one is drawing humanity nearer to a common centre of 
Light and Leading. Let us take our stand in the brighter radiance 
of to-day, on the bedrock of our religious liberties, let us with ex- 
ceeding joyfulness glorify that God within us who is teaching and 
guiding us individually and collectively ; from all quarters of the 
globe we come gathered here together as Architects and Builders 
of a larger Temple not made with hands. 

I am privileged to make my contribution to this glorious Home 



32 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

which we are creating. I come as a Christian woman and a The- 
osophist, as a disciple of our teacher H. P. Blavatsky — may 
her name be for ever blessed ! — and as a loving servant of our 
Masters. 

The symbolism of the Bible is to be sought in its history and 
its allegory. Yet the symbolism is not to be taken as evidence of 
the incorrectness of the history as history, which must be judged 
on its own merits. A key to the interpretation of its symbolism is 
offered by one of the greatest Kabbalists who says : " The more un- 
reasonable the story of the allegory, the more profound is its occult 
meaning/' and the more widely may its application be extended. 
Thus the first chapters of Genesis are first, an account of the crea- 
tion of our earth ; second, an account of the first four races, our 
ancestors who inhabited this globe as described by H. P. Blavatsky. 
Thii'd, they describe the generation and emanation of the soul from 
and by the Seven Potencies or Hierarchies of God. 

They it is who say " Let us make man in our own image," who 
implant in each man the nature of the whole Kosmos, thus pro- 
ducing a perfectible entity, one which may in its completeness touch 
and ultimately rule the seven planes of Kosmos. Moreover, these 
three keys to the interpretation of these chapters show that they 
are not so much an account of the creation of our earth as an 
exposition of the laws of creation generally. 

Again, the Hebrew Books, besides being an historical account of 
the rise and growth and decline of the Hebrew nation, are also 
a symbolical history of the Soul, its origin, birth, nature, powers, 
growth, and destiny. These are all pictured in the story of the 
people Israel ; their trials and journeys represent the manner of 
the soul's evolution. Egypt is materiality, Canaan is the pas- 
sional and sensuous nature which Israel, or the Soul seeking 
spiritual regeneration, must subdue before the " Promised Land " 
can be entered. The " Promised Land " itself is " the Kingdom 
of Heaven," or the liberation of the Soul from the thraldom of 
mind and sense. 

The Prophetical Books exhibit the high prophetic power of the 
Jewish Seers and holy men, and mark a narrow but deep occult 
metaphysic — a metaphysic which prominently distinguishes the 
Divinity of the Soul and the Oneness of God, without, however, 
daring to analyse it. Fear is a strong characteristic of the ancient 
Hebrew. 

The Gospels are, as much as the Hebrew Books, a revelation of 
the soul typified in the birth, life, suffering, crucifixion, and resur- 
rection of Christ. These events in His life represent the inward- 
ness of the Soul, its divinity, its evolution, regeneration, and 
reincarnation. 

"Christ and the Gospels are the key to the Creation of Man, of his past, 
present, and future eternal being. His nature, why and when created, how and 
for what purpose, they show us who and what is God — the everlasting, self- 
existent, and glorious — what His nature and how he manifests Himself in man 
through love, life, and light. What the word is, that is truth, and how all this 
mighty power can effectually operate in love and gentleness on the spirit and 
being of man. How man is redeemed from the Fall, what that Fall was, what 
Life and Death are, what these are intended and made to bring about, who and 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 3$ 

what is the Principle called Satan, and how all this seeming antagonism works 
together to make manifest the hidden power and wisdom of God." {Buchanan.) 

Of the two main doctrines which are prominently brought 
forward by Theosophy, both Karma and Reincarnation receive 
confirmation, although the time was not yet ripe for the com- 
pleter enunciation of them which H. P. Blavatsky gave forth. 
There is nothing either in the Old or the New Testament which is 
contradictory of them, and there is much scattered evidence 
esoterically given. Nor could this be otherwise : the writers of the 
Bible Books would not be permitted to teach exoterically doctrines 
which were still only revealed to the esoteric student. 

A paper on " Fire Worship,'- by Nasawanji Billimoria, of 
Bombay, was then read by title only. 

Mr. William Q. Judge — I have been asked to say a few more 
words on the subject of Theosophy in the Christian Bible ; that is, 
I have been asked to show what Theosophical doctrines can be 
found in the Christian books. 

One of the Theosophical doctrines is the doctrine of Karma ; 
that is, exact justice ruling in the spiritual as well as in the phy- 
sical ; the exact carrying out of effect from cause in the spiritual 
nature of man, the moral nature as well as in the physical world. 
That is, that every man is ruled in his life, not by a vengeful and 
partial God, but by justice. This life is just ; whether one is 
miserable or happy, whether he is poor or rich, it is just. Where 
is this doctrine found in the Christian Bible, this doctrine that as 
ye have sown so shall ye reap ? That is, having lived before in this 
world you have made causes which bring about to-day the life you 
lead now, which have made the characteristics that you have, which 
made you what you are now, and have plunged you into a living 
hell or into a happy heaven to-day. We say this doctrine has not 
of late been taught in Christianity ; but it is in the books of the 
Christians and it ought to have been taught, it would have been 
profitable had it been expounded. Now, where can it be found ? 

Does not Jesus say, among other things, you should not judge 
others? Why? Because if you do you will be judged yourself. 
What you mete out to others will be meted out to you. That is, 
what men do to others will be done to themselves. Where and when 
is this to be done ? When is the measure to be meted out if not in 
this life or some other ? St. Paul says : " Brethren, be not de- 
ceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall 
he also reap." Do not these quotations prove that in St. Paul and 
in the words of Jesus can be found this doctrine of Karma : that as 
you sow so shall you reap ? That your circumstances now are the 
result of your own acts ? This is the doctrine which is the most 
prominent in the Theosophical field. I call it Theosophical, not 
because the members teach it, nor from its presence in our litera- 
ture, but because it is found in the religion of every nation ; that is 
why it is Theosophical. But you have been taught that you must 
be good or you will be punished. In the West you are told you 
will be rewarded and punished in this life and in the next. But 
men are not punished in this life. To-day thousands of men live 



34 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

lives of luxury, strife, and crime, but they are not punished here, 
and, according to the teachings of Christianity, they stand a .pretty 
good chance of escaping punishment hereafter if they only believe. 
We see that many are not rewarded who are good, but are often 
born into misery. 

The doctrine of reincarnation is taught in the Christian Bible, 
that is, that you will be born over and over again in this world 
according to your destiny, to follow the effects of causes you your- 
self have put in motion in whatever life. Where is that found ? In 
the mouth of Jesus ; and certainly if Jesus, the founder of Chris- 
tianity, has stated this, has any man or any body of men, has any 
person any right to say that it is not true ? I deny their right, and 
I say that Christianity has been deprived by theologians of a doc- 
trine which Jesus himself declared, when reincarnation is taken 
away from it. We say that the doctrine is in the Gospels. One 
day they brought to Jesus a man who was born blind and asked 
him why was this man born blind ; was it for some sin he had com- 
mitted or those his parents committed ? Now, how could a man be 
born blind for a sin he had himself committed unless he had lived 
before that time to commit it ? This was a doctrine believed in at 
that day. The Jews believed it and Jesus was a Jew. He did not 
deny the doctrine on that occasion. He only said, " Not for that 
reason." If the doctrine were wrong, certainly Jesus, as the Son of 
God, would not only have denied it, but he would have said, u The 
doctrine you enunciate is false." He said nothing of the kind. At 
another time he himself declared the doctrine, and he asked his 
disciples, " Whom do men think that I am ?", meaning and referring 
to what was believed at that time, that great sages were born over 
and over again for the enlightenment of mankind. They call them 
Avatars in the East. They had an idea great sages and prophets 
would come back. Will you tell me how such men then could be 
reborn at all unless under natural law and unless such law governs 
every man ? So Jesus, referring to this idea, said to his disciples : 
" Whom do men think that I am ?" And they said: " Some men think 
that you are Elias, who was for to come." St. John had been killed 
just then by the ruler of Judea, and Jesus said to them that Elias 
had already come back in the person of John and the rulers had 
killed him, not knowing he was a reincarnation of Elias. So in 
one case he did not deny and in the other he explicitly asserted the 
doctrine. And if we take this view we know what he meant when 
he said to Nicodemus that a man must be born again. He meant 
not only the regeneration of the soul, but reborn into the body 
again ; that is, that man is a soul who comes into a house to live 
life after life, and he must go from house to house until he has 
learned the whole architecture of human life and is able to build a 
perfect house. In Revelations, the last word of all the books, we 
find the great speaker writing that he heard the voice of God 
saying to him that him who overcometh the flesh and the devil, the 
world and sin, " I shall make a pillar in the house of my Father 
and he shall go out no more/' Does not that mean he had gone 
out before ? The old fathers in the early ages of Christianity 
taught that if we triumphed over the flesh and the devil, the world 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 35 

and sin, God would make each one a pillar in the house of his 
father and he would not have to go out again. That is the doctrine 
of reincarnation. 

Then if you will look at the history of the Christian Church 
you find that the doctrine was taught for five hundred years, and 
not until the Council of Constantinople was it rejected. At that 
time it was turned out by ignorant monks, and since then it has not 
been taught by the teachers, but it is in the Christian books, and 
to these Christian books we appeal. I say these very doctrines are 
in many other places found there. Another doctrine is that man is 
not merely a body, but is a composite being of many divisions. 
St. Paul taught we have a spiritual body as well as a material body, 
that we are a spiritual body and a physical body and spirit. That 
will bring in every one of the seven principles of the Theosophical 
category. So we say, all through the Christian books, in the Old 
Testament and in the New, we may find the great doctrines of 
Theosophy, by which I mean the great universal ideas of unity, of 
universal brotherhood, of strict justice and no favoritism, of rein- 
carnation, and of the composite nature of man, which permeate 
every religion as well as the books of the Christians, both old and 
new. 

Adjourned until J p. m. 

FRIDAY AFTERNOON, SEPTEMBER l6TH. 

Mr. Judge — I inadvertently this morning forgot to state that 
Mrs. Cooper-Oakley is one of the delegates from the European Sec- 
tion. She is a resident of London, and has been appointed by the 
Australian Branches also, because she has just come from there. 
The next session after this will be this evening in this hall, unless 
we shall be able to secure a larger one, as a great many persons 
have gone away because this one is so full. This evening we shall 
have addresses from Mrs. Besant and others on various important 
doctrines of Theosophy. I understand that many persons who are 
not fully acquainted with Theosophy and suppose that in one 
short meeting we could describe it all, go away with the impression 
that Theosophy is too high a philosophy for the common people. 
Theosophy is exactly the reverse. It is not for the parlor merely, 
and it has never done much good through the parlor. The parlor 
does not like it. It is an everyday religion, and if those who had 
any other idea will remain for all our sessions, they may be able to 
find out how Theosophy may be of use in daily life. The next ses- 
sion after this evening will be to-morrow, when we meet again here 
or in some other hall. The evening session on Saturday will be in 
the Hall of Washington, which is a larger hall, and which has been 
given to us for the purpose of enabling three or four of us — Mrs. 
Besant, Professor Chakravarti, probably Mrs. Oakley and myself — 
to make a general presentation of Theosophy to the Parliament. Of 
course that means you, because you constitute the Parliament. I 
wish also to state that there is also an overflow meeting in the next 
hall, which, if it grows to sufficient size, will be addressed by Bro. 
Claude F. Wright on some Theosophical subject. You will now 
please give your attention to Dr. Buck of Cincinnati. 



36 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



THEOSOPHY HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED AS UNDER- 
LYING ALL RELIGIONS AND SACRED SCRIP- 
TURES —ESOTERICISM IN RELIGIONS AND 
PHILOSOPHIES. 



DR. J. D. BUCK. 



No history of either philosophies or religions would be com- 
plete or intelligent that lost sight of the mystic element, that super- 
sensuous realm from which all unseen causes emanate; that ideal 
world, the existence of which the thinking, reasoning mind per- 
ceives, but which man has never yet realized in the outer life of the 
world. Neither do we find such histories as exist ignoring this 
mystic realm. On the contrary, they all treat of it, and either, like 
Enfield, frankly confess their inability to understand the subject, 
or, entirely misapprehending the doctrines, represent them as 
foolish or fraudulent. In The Gnostics and their Remains, the learned 
author makes the following remark: 

"The Christian writers who have treated upon the origin and nature of these 
doctrines were (Origen excepted) ignorant ecclesiastics, who could discern 
nothing in any religion beyond its outside forms, which they construed in the 
worst possible sense, even seeking for the most unfavorable interpretation of 
which such outward appearance was susceptible." 

If this shall seem a severe criticism of these critics, a very little 
examination of the works under question will convince any candid 
reader that it is but the simple truth. It follows, therefore, that 
these doctrines have very rarely had a fair hearing, and that to the 
present day they are entirely misunderstood because so continually 
misrepresented. The real doctrines have seldom been heard of in 
modern times. Beliefs that are as old as human thought, and which 
number among their adherents more than half the human race, 
possess a novelty to the average reader that is strange indeed, and 
for the reason above stated. 

They have been distorted out of all resemblance to their true 
intent and meaning. The time has come in the progress of mod- 
ern thought when these old truths are being restated, and they 
will have a candid hearing. To accomplish this result constitutes 
one object of the Theosophical Society. 

There is a certain body of doctrines designated as Theosophy, 
and while they embody many truths, are designated by many 
names known to all history, and underlie all great religions and 
philosophies, they concern also the very foundations of all real 
science and all true knowledge, no less than the basis of ethics. 

It would be difficult to trace these doctrines in detail through 
the religious and philosophical history of man since the beginning 
of the Christian era, for two reasons. First, on account of the 
misapprehension and consequent misrepresentation already re- 
ferred to; and Second, for the reason that they have been held 
sacred and secret, requiring a key for their interpretation. The 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 37 

reasons for this secrecy need not here be entered into, for no one 
at all conversant with the subject will deny the fact. The author 
of the Gnostics, to whom I am indebted for many valuable sugges- 
tions, says : 

"Secret Societies, especially that one of which the maxim was, as Clemens 
tells us, the truly wise one, ' Learn to know all, but keep thyself unknown," 
«rect no monuments to attract the public attention; they deal in symbols to be 
privately circulated; or else they embody their tenets in mystic drawings like the 
Ophite Diagramma, and in papyri, long since committed to the flames." 

Now in view of these facts, viz.: the misrepresentations derived 
by the ignorant from the outer form and symbols on the one 
hand, and concealment by the initiated on the other, it may very 
naturally be asked: How can any one in modern times, or since 
the decline of the Mysteries in Greece and elsewhere, determine 
what these doctrines really are ? Certain it is that mere curiosity 
or idle and ignorant speculation can never discern them. To 
such as these they are forever a sealed book. But just as all great 
religions have had their inspired teachers, their seers and proph- 
ets, so has the Secret Doctrine had its wise interpreters in all ages. 
What music was to the intuitive genius of a Beethoven or a Mozart, 
and what it became under their interpretation — a revelation of 
beauty and harmony — such has the Secret Science ever been to 
those who know, and such their revelations to " the listening ear 
and the faithful breast." 

In order to be able to trace these doctrines, in outline at least, 
through the ages, one must first know what they are. 

"The Secret Doctrine establishes three fundamental proposi- 
tions " (p. 14 Proem) : 

(a) "An Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless, and Immutable Princi- 
ple on which all speculation is impossible, since it transcends the 
power of human conception and could only be dwarfed by any 
human expression or similitude." This fundamental idea must be 
grasped and followed through varied forms of expression and under 
many names, and no other proposition can be entertained that is 
inconsistent with it. The second postulate is : 

(b) " The Eternity of the Universe in toto, as a boundless plane, 
periodically the 'playground of numberless Universes incessantly 
manifesting and disappearing,' called the ' manifesting stars ' and 
the ' sparks of Eternity.'" "The appearance and disappearance 
of worlds is like a regular tidal ebb of flux and reflux." Herein is 
postulated the Law of Cycles, alike applicable to atoms or suns, 
to individual man as to solar systems. The third postulate is : 

(c) "The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal 
Over-Soul, the latter being itself an aspect of the Unknown Root ; 
and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul — a spark of the former 
— through the Cycle of Incarnation (or necessity) in accordance 
with Cyclic and Karmic Law, during the whole term." 

From these three fundamental propositions the entire philoso- 
phy unfolds or emanates, just as Cosmos issues from the One 
Eternal Principle. I am not aware that the doctrines thus clearly 
formulated can anywhere be found outside the writings of H. P. 
Blavatsky. The philosophy of evolution thus set forth furnishes a 



38 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

key by which the mysterious chambers and secret crypts of an- 
tiquity may be opened and explored. " The pivotal doctrine of 
the Esoteric philosophy admits no privileges or special gifts to 
man, save those won by his own Ego through personal effort and 
merit, throughout a long series of metempsychoses and reincarna- 
tions." Bearing these fundamental ideas in mind, we may briefly 
consider a few among the almost innumerable number of their 
representatives and embodiments during the past twenty-six cen- 
turies. 

It is a familiar saying that all our great religions and philoso- 
phies have come from the far East. If this be true in a general 
sense, it is true in a special sense regarding the Secret Wisdom. 
King says that " so long as philosophy was cultivated in Greece,. 
India was ever regarded as the ultimate and pure source of true 
wisdom." 

Pherecydes, the first preceptor of Pythagoras, is said by Jose- 
phus to have derived his doctrines from the Egyptians, and his 
illustrious pupil and founder of the Italic School of Philosophy 
went also to Egypt to complete his studies. Neither of these phi- 
losophers is known to have committed his doctrines to writing. 
Egypt was at that time the seat of learning, with colleges at Heli- 
opolis, Thebes, Memphis, etc. 

After spending twenty-two years in the schools of Egypt, Iam- 
blichus relates that Pythagoras went to the far East to converse 
with the Persian and Chaldean Magi and with the Indian Gymnos- 
ophists. The real source of the learning of Pythagoras being thus 
clearly defined, the doctrines he taught but confirm their source. 
In a form more or less veiled by symbol and allegory, he taught 
the Secret Doctrine. Following Pythagoras came Buddha, the 
great Indian Reformer of Brahmanism, whose entire life and doc- 
trines were but an expression of the traditions and philosophy of 
the old Wisdom Religion. The Socratic doctrines as expounded 
by Plato constituted the very soul of the Greek philosophy, and 
the influence of the Porch and the Academy not only constituted 
the glory of Greece and later of Alexandria, and largely influenced 
the early Christian philosophy, but influence the world to-day, as 
they have entered into the thought of all great thinkers and writers 
for the past twenty-five hundred years. Plato was an Initiate, 
and the core of his philosophy is the three postulates already 
quoted. 

The Essenes, whom Philo Judseus and Josephus describe as ex- 
isting in Palestine at the time of Christ, King declares to have been 
" Buddhist monks in every particular," as proved by the Edicts of 
Asoka. The word Essenes or Hessenes is derived from the Arabic 
hessan — pure. One has only to read the accounts given by Philo 
and Josephus to learn the identity of the doctrines of the Essenes 
with those of Jesus, bearing in mind that both the Essenes and 
Christ speak of a Secret Doctrine not to be revealed to the mul- 
titude. 

Some twenty years ago De Quincy took the position in a popu- 
lar essay that " unless it can be shown that the Essenes were the 
early Christians, it must be conceded that there was no need of a 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 39 

revelation through Christ, as his teachings were all anticipated by 
the Essenes." The Essenes were sworn not to speak of their doc- 
trine except among themselves, and they were sworn also not to 
write of it, except in allegory and symbolism. This is expressly 
stated by Philo ; and upon this and other statements, Eusebius, as 
late as the fourth century, gives the opinion that the Gospels and 
Epistles of the New Testament were the secret books of the Es- 
senes. In proof of this Eusebius cites the exercises, festivals, 
and rules in vogue among the Essenes as recorded by Philo, and 
declares them to be the same as practiced by the Christians of his 
own day. Eusebius was anxious to show that the Essenes were the 
early Christians, when the fact is that the Christians were the later 
Essenes, added to their number "from without," in other words, 
the " uninitiated," who possessed a portion of the Secret Wisdom, 
or Gnosis, revealed to them by Jesus, preserved by the sages of the 
Jewish people before the time of Christ, and derived originally 
from the hessan or pure Buddhist monks. Buddha originated 
these doctrines no more than did Jesus, for we find them taught by 
Plato, Pythagoras, and Zoroaster, if we but follow the key for their 
interpretation. 

Of the many schools that flourished during the first three cen- 
turies of the Christian Era, there were two of paramount import- 
ance to our present study. These were the school of the 
Gnostics, and that of the Theosophists founded by Ammonius 
Saccas. " It is a noticeable fact that neither Zoroaster, Buddha, 
Orpheus, Pythgoras, Confucius, Socrates, nor Ammonius Saccas, 
committed anything to writing." Whatever we now possess of 
their teachings has been derived from their disciples or from their 
contemporaries. For the best record of the Gnostic teachings we 
are indebted to the church Fathers, through their attempts to 
refute and destroy them. King declares himself most indebted to 
The Refutation of all Heresies, a work composed by Hippolitus, 
Bishop of Ostia, who was himself put to death A. D. 222. Irenaeus 
and Origen, with the same purpose in view, contributed largely to 
the same result. The Gnostic teachings seem first to have been 
promulgated by Simon Magus, then by Menander and by Basilides 
at Alexandria, who died about A. D. 138, and was followed by 
Vaientinus, who was born of Jewish parents at Alexandria, and 
who was styled "the profoundest doctor" of them all. "The 
fundamental doctrine held in common by all the chiefs uf the 
Gnosis was that the visible creation was not the work of the Su- 
preme Deity, but of the Demiurgos, a simple emanation and 
several degrees removed from the Godhead." 

This doctrine of emanations may be traced in the earlier teach- 
ings to which we have referred. It was derived jointly from the 
Zendavesta and the Kabala, and was thus of Chaldeo-Persian and 
Indo-Egyptian origin. It was taught in the mysteries of Initia- 
tion, and was then, as it is now, a Theosophical Doctrine. The 
Magi and the Kabalists were Initiates and Theosophists, and the 
Gnostics taught the same philosophy. The sevenfold form in 
which all emanations proceed, the seven planes in nature and the 
seven principles in man, were more immediately derived from the 



40 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

Kabala, of Chaldeo-Persian origin, under the form of Angels, 
Principalities, and Powers, the same as the Gods of the earlier 
Greek writers, the " Creators" and " Builders" of the Secret Doc- 
trine. This septenary teaching was especially pronounced with 
the Ophite sect, a branch of the Gnostic School. Against this doc- 
trine of emanations the church Fathers waged a continual warfare, 
and the so-called heresies of the early church arose through these 
discussions and the attempt to establish the doctrine of a personal 
God and the bitter disputes concerning the nature of Christ ; and 
though many a church Father was tinctured with Gnosticism, they 
were overruled or destroyed by the more ignorant priests with the 
rabble at their backs, resulting in giving to the Christian world a 
personal, male Deity and vicarious atonement in place of the more 
beneficent and philosophical doctrine. Antiquity shows no worse 
type than the Jewish Jehovah, and no worse confusion than the 
theological disputes regarding the Docetic Gnosis. 

The school of Theosophists founded byAmmonius Saccas arose 
about the middle of the third century. His followers, Porphyry, 
Plotinus, Proclus, Iamblichus, and many others, were styled neo- 
Platonists. 

Their motive aimed, it is true, at a revival of the philosophy of 
Plato, but Ammonius undertook to bring order out of chaos, agree- 
ment out of fierce controversy, and so to bring about the reign of 
Universal Brotherhood among all classes. He undertook to show 
that the fundamental doctrines were the same among many sects. 
Among the Gnostics the severest penalty for those who refused to 
listen or to believe was want of knowledge and subjugation to 
Matter; and with Ammonius and his followers, ignorance was con- 
sidered a misfortune, and disbelief no crime. Both Gnostics and 
Theosophists taught Reincarnation and Karma, as did, in one form 
or another, nearly all philosophies and religions of antiquity. In- 
deed, even a superficial examination of the history of Gnosticism 
and neo-Platonism will show, provided it be intelligently made and 
without prejudice, that the movement inaugurated in 1875 by H. 
P. Blavatsky was almost identical with that undertaken more than 
fifteen centuries ago byAmmonius Saccas. The teachings are sub- 
stantially the same, and the motives identical. Here, then, is a 
direct line of descent. From Pythagoras to Plato, with the teach- 
ings of Buddha laying more stress on ethics than on philosophy, 
and so as a reformer founding a new religion on that already grow- 
ing corrupt : thence through the Essenes and the Alexandrian 
Therapeutae, in the time of Christ. Jesus taught the same doc- 
trine and instituted the same reform in Judaism as had Buddha in 
Brahmanism. The Gnostics and Theosophists kept alive the old 
philosophy of the Vedas, the Zendavesta, the Kabala, and the 
Egyptian Secret Wisdom — always Theosophy — the Secret Doctrine 
— till the sublime philosophy received a check under Constantine, 
and with the Mohammedan conquest and the burning of the Alex- 
andrian Library the dark ages began. 

Divine philosophy was compelled to yield to brute force and 
ecclesiastical supremacy. These same Theosophical doctrines found 
a home in Arabia with the Alchemists of the Middle Ages, and for 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 41 

centuries were known to the Western world through the alchemical 
nomenclature. They may also be traced in the songs of the Trou- 
badors and Minnesingers, as these wandering minstrels roamed 
over Europe in the Middle Ages. Like the Beatrice of Dante, the 
"Lady-Love" of the troubador was often the " Divine Sophia," 
while many a legend and fairy-tale, like " Collin Clout " and the 
(i Redbook of Appin," was the same secret disguised. 

Roger Bacon in the thirteenth century, and Paracelsus in the 
fourteenth, stand as Theosophists and Initiates in the Secret Doc- 
trine. Time will not permit points in comparison, nor even the 
naming of all authors or writings that bear direct testimony to the 
Theosophical doctrines. The Society of Rosicrucians, originating, it 
is supposed, in the fourteenth century, might be classed as Platonic, 
Gnostic, Theosophic, Kabalistic, Masonic, or Alchemic, for the sim- 
ple reason that it embodied, philosophized upon, and yet concealed, 
the Secret Doctrine. 

The philosophical systems of Newton, Des Cartes, Leibnitz, and 
Spinoza all embody postulates and principles found in the Secret 
Doctrine, and can on this basis be reconciled with each other. 
There would be little difficulty in establishing Sir Isaac Newton's 
indebtedness to the writings of the "Teutonic Theosopher," Jacob 
Behmen, by both historical and philosophical evidence, as Andreas 
Freher and William Law were contemporaries of Newton; and for 
the further reason, that copious translations from the writings of 
Behmen were found among Newton's posthumous papers. No 
principle embodied in the philosophy of Newton is absent from 
the writings of Behmen. What Newton did was to give to these 
philosophical principles a scientific expression and a mathematical 
formulary, so as to fit in with the advancing scientific thought of 
the age. Newton's first law, that attraction and repulsion are equal 
and opposite, is but a mathematical formulation of the old Hindu 
doctrine of the "Pairs of Opposites," or the dualism of nature as 
taught in the Kabala and in all Mysteries. 

Tracing these doctrines in the oldest religions, whether in the 
Vedas, the Egyptian, Chaldean, or earlier Greek Mysteries, or in 
the Kabala, and comparing them with the secret teachings of the 
Essenes, the Gnostics, the Alexandrian Theosophists, the Rosicru- 
cians, and the mediaeval Alchemists, we find not only general agree- 
ment and substantial harmony, but far more consistency than 
among scientists from the days of Newton in regard to the esti- 
mated heat of the sun ; or between theories of the present day re- 
garding the constitution of matter or the nature of the atom. If 
modern science can be called exact, these older doctrines cannot 
be called fanciful. There is contained in these old teachings a 
science more exact and profound than is yet known to modern 
times, for the ancient Initiated were not only the most subtle meta- 
physicians and the most correct reasoners, they were in the truest 
sense Philosophers. 

The three postulates of the Secret Doctrine are to be found in 
all these old philosophies. They have been compared and anno- 
tated through H. P. Blavatsky and the authors of her Secret Doc- 
trine. Such comparison will show that revelation and inspiration 



42 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

are not the exclusive possession of any one religion, least of all 
do they belong exclusively to the youngest of these religions, 
the Christian. It can be demonstrated that every religion 
has an underlying esoteric basis, and that basis is the Secret 
Doctrine. 

If the history, rituals, and glyphics of Free Masonry be ex- 
amined with such knowledge of the Kabala as is furnished by 
Mr. J. Ralston Skinner, not a shadow of doubt can remain as 
to its origin and significance. Its Ancient Landmarks are but 
the outer form, the dead letter, of the most ancient initiation 
into the Mysteries of Occult Theosophy. More than one Masonic 
writer, like Dr. Oliver and Dr. Mackey, trace Masonry to the Se- 
cret Society of the Essenes, and the most common traditions of 
Masonry claim Zoroaster and Pythagoras as ancient Masters in 
Masonry. 

The entire philosophy and Rituals of Masonry cluster around 
the Legend of Hiram Abiff, the "Widow's Son," who lost his life 
in the defense of his integrity. The Mystery of Christ, who, like 
Christna before him, was the "son of a Virgin," deals with the 
same Secret Wisdom. The "son of the widow," and the "son of 
the Virgin," are alike fatherless. This is the Great Secret ; The 
Mystery of the Ages ; one and all, from begi-nning- r to*end, these 
mysteries — old and forever new — conceal the knowledge of the 
nature of the Soul and its journey through matter. The Essenes 
held this secret under oath of perpetual concealment, as did every 
ancient Mystery. Jesus partially revealed it to the Gentiles, and 
therefore the Jews, who knew the secret, conspired with the rabble 
to put him to death, in conformity with the prescribed penalty. 
Socrates before the time of Jesus, and Paul afterward, suffered the 
same penalty. All three may have been rather self-taught than 
formally initiated. Those who possessed the secret through the^ 
process of initiation had in each case abused their power and 
prostituted their knowledge, and yeTfTfreyrfeftrsedr -either* tcr reform 
or to permit any outer revelation. Neither Ancient nor Modern 
Mysteries or Secret Societies have, or ever had, anything to con- 
ceal from "him who knows " the mystery of the human Soul ; its 
origin, nature, journey through matter, and return to Paradise or 
absorption in Nirvana. 

The self-taught mystic, who derives his knowledge through his 
own spiritual intuitions or by subjective illumination, without a 
knowledge of the philosophy of the Secret Doctrine, is usually a 
religious enthusiast or a Mystic. He may even found a religion or 
a school, but he can never become a hierophant of Initiations. He 
may possess the " Doctrine of the Heart ." and per form,, apparent 
miracles, but is not likely to become an Adept in all the Occult 
forces of nature. The perfection of man requires rtfee complete 
at-one-ment of body, soul, and spirit ; or universal consciousness 
with perfect knowledge ; and hence the power to use for the high- 
est good. 

John Reuchlin, the head of the " Humanists," the preceptor of 
Luther, and called also " The Father of the Reformation," was a 
profound Kabalist, and undertook to reform the abuses of his 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 43 

times on Theosophical lines. He resisted successfully the raid of 
the Dominican Monks and other bitter assailants, but failed to en- 
graft the wise and pure Theosophical doctrines on the gross igno- 
rance of his times. A glimpse of these doctrines under theological 
dress may be found in a little anonymous volume called Theologia 
Germanica, supposed to have been written by a member of a sect 
called " The Friends of God." This book was a great favorite 
with Luther, as was Reuchlin himself, as shown in Luther's letters. 
The abuses of superstition gave place to the dogma of Faith, and 
knowledge and light derived through Theosophy fell to the rear. 
The age was too materialistic, the ignorance too gross and dense. 
The Protestant Reformation might otherwise have been a very 
different affair indeed. 

A single conclusion remains to be drawn. So far as outer records 
go or inner meaning has been revealed, this old philosophy, this 
ancient science, this Wisdom Religion, was as perfect and as well 
known in the days of Pythagoras as at any later period. Plato 
added nothing to it. He but transmitted, or concealed, that which 
he had been taught in the mysteries of Initiation. 

The conclusion is obvious. This Secret Wisdom dates back to 
the building of the Pyramids and is embodied in the Vedanta of 
old India; and not only were the most ancient sages and Rishis 
Initiates, but the true wisdom has been preserved and transmitted 
from age to age, and the Masters spoken of by H. P. Blavatsky, 
the real authors and inspirers of her Secret Doctrine, exist to-day as 
the Theosophical Mahatmas. The evidence may be found along 
the lines I have so imperfectly sketched, and is confirmed for all 
but the ignorant and the scornful in H. P. Blavatsky's great work. 
To the student who is really in search of the truth, the evidence is 
convincing and overwhelming in favor of the existence of a core of 
truth, represented in numberless forms and running through the 
countless ages, preserved and transmitted by genuine Initiates, and 
this core of truth is THEOSOPHY. 

Theosophy has, therefore, a history and a literature but little 
known and seldom even suspected in these later times. No dis- 
covery of modern science, no well-defined and well-authenticated 
principle of modern philosophy, exists to-day that was unknown to 
the genuine Initiate of old. The " great secret " was never fully 
revealed except as a matter of experience of the Soul. One must 
understand this fact, and its bearing upon the process of obtaining 
real knowledge, in order to be able to follow understandingly even 
the outer text, or those general principles embodied in the language 
of Symbolism. The deeper mysteries are incapable of other ex- 
pression, as they pertain to the soul's experience. Initiation is, 
therefore, in the truest sense an evolution. The great secret is 
taught theoretically and philosophically, and put in practical dem- 
onstration by the neophyte under guidance of his instructors. This 
is the meaning of the travesty among Masons on " Practical " and 
"Symbolical" or " Theoretical Masonry." 

Language is therefore inadequate to convey these deeper secrets 
to the ignorant. Symbolism conceals them from the profane and 
records them for the knowing. Concealment may be considered 



44 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. . 

necessary where revelation is impossible except through long 
training and experience. To " conceal " and " record in symbols" 
are therefore synonymous. Herein lies the key of the Secret 
Doctrine, and the Esoteric basis of all true Religions. To experi- 
ence is to know, the foundation of all Wisdom. The Secret Doc- 
trine and the Wisdom Religion are therefore the same, viz.: 
THEOSOPHY. 



LINKS BETWEEN RELIGION AND SCIENCE, 

AND 

REVELATION NOT A SPECIAL PROPERTY OF ANY 
ONE RELIGION. 



MRS. MERCIE M. THIRDS. 



Whatever our religious or our scientific preconceptions may be, 
we are mutually convinced that he best understands a subject who 
is familiar with all its parts. We distrust conclusions based on 
partial knowledge, no matter how exact that maybe, for experience 
has taught that the value of any fact can only be properly appreci- 
ated when it is considered in its relation to other facts. What in 
separation seemed important may be an insignificant part of the 
whole. What seemed trifling may, in its proper place, link all our 
facts together into harmonious unity. 

It seems evident, too, that in any correct generalization all con- 
current truths must have their place. Not one may be omitted, 
but, grouped as we find them in our investigation, they must to- 
gether build up the reality we know. Then do we behold Truth. 
Order succeeds chaos. Instead of disjointed fragments, from which 
only partial knowledge can be wrested, we have an intelligible 
whole. However dissimilar, its various parts supplement each 
other, and for the first time disclose their real character and 
value. 

Now, may we not reasonably regard Nature as such a unity ? 
And as mind, no less than matter, is an aspect of nature, is it not 
possible that all facts of experience and observation are not merely 
congruent, but mutually complemental ? If so, knowledge gained 
by experience should be related to observed facts, synthesis aiding 
analysis in search for truth. That our modern method is different 
we are well aware. Analysis alone is relied upon. Investigation 
is specialized, each seeker following his clue in a separate domain. 
Grandly useful as this system undoubtedly is for study of details, 
it leaves facts of one kind unchecked by corresponding facts of an- 
other nature. So long as it is followed merely to collect details, 
no fault can be found ; but when, in the absence of synthetic 
unity, each department is left to theorize on independent data, we 
may fairly question their conclusions. 

It could hardly be expected that a method which accepts analysis 
alone as sufficient basis for generalization should regard subjective 
and objective realms as necessary complements of a whole. Still less 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 45 

could it heed a world confessedly beyond the range of mind and 
sense. Faith and knowledge, sharply sundered, lose all sense of 
relationship with each other, and the inevitable result is an antag- 
onism which reason is powerless to overcome. Religion, resting 
upon revelation, affirms the existence of a Divine Intelligence from 
which creation proceeds. It declares that life is from God, and 
that man possesses a soul which is immortal. Science, trusting only 
the senses, delves into matter, collecting a splendid array of facts. 
Assuming that there can be no reality with which it cannot come 
into physical contact, it dismisses as valueless all evidence of a sub- 
jective kind. Forced, therefore, to regard life and intelligence as 
phenomena merely, it seeks their cause in matter itself. We are 
told that force is a property of matter, and that, conjoined, they 
are sufficient to produce a world. Finally, the origin of man is re- 
ferred to evolution from lower forms of life, while belief in Deity 
and the human soul is branded as superstition. 

Between these contradictory hypotheses no reconciliation is 
possible. If one is right, the other must be wrong. It is idle 
to claim that no conflict exists between religion and science so long 
as their teachings are mutually subversive, and nothing can be 
gained by an attempt to believe irreconcilable theories. The task 
before us, then, is not to weld religion and science into an unsym- 
pathetic union. We are merely called upon to consider if there 
are not gaps in the testimony given, and to find, if we can, addi- 
tional evidence. 

A slight examination will suffice to show that the evidence upon 
which conclusions have been based is not complete. Let our wit- 
nesses themselves confirm this statement by their own admissions. 
Although religion offers practically nothing in regard to other than 
spiritual states, it explicitly declares that man is a triune being, 
composed of spirit, soul, and body. Well, what is the spirit ? and 
what is the soul ? If told they are one, what becomes of the triple 
classification ? If they are dissimilar, what is the difference, and 
what the function of each ? To these questions no answer is 
given. 

Science, on the other hand, even while contending that 
matter is the one reality, is forced to postulate some unknown 
medium in order to explain such familiar phenomena as light and 
heat. Although agreeing to call it ether, eminent scientists dis- 
agree radically in opinion concerning its nature and constitution, 
proving that these still lie outside the limits of actual knowledge. 
Moreover, according to their own hypothesis, it must differ from 
any of the three known states of matter, solid, liquid, and gaseous, 
in order to meet the requirements. We are only assured that it is 
a subtile substance of homogeneous character, so tenuous as to 
elude chemical test and to pervade all the molecules of matter. 

And if a gap in knowledge of things spiritual and things ma- 
terial is immediately betrayed, no surprise should be felt when we 
discover that recognized facts are not always satisfactorily ex- 
plained. For example, if mind is, as science tells us, a material 
essence evolved by molecular activity in the brain, why is it not 
most keen when the play of physical forces is most apparent ? A 



46 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

comparison of student and athlete clearly indicates another rule. 
Memory, which is truly called the basis of individuality, is ascribed 
to unrecognized impressions in cerebral substance. How, then, 
shall we account for its continuance when that substance is period- 
ically replaced by new tissue ? In what can it inhere during these 
changes, and how can such mysterious impressions be transmitted 
from one molecule to another? 

It is not necessary to multiply cases of inadequate scientific ex- 
planation. A few of such fundamental character suffice to prove 
that acquaintance with nature is much less thorough than is gen- 
erally supposed. In lieu of complete demonstration, speculation 
has boldly dealt with fact in an effort to bridge gaps which have 
so far successfully resisted accepted methods of research. Is it, 
then, audacious to reflect that the term science, a synonym for 
knowledge, has been usurped by many still-unproven theories ? 

That a new domain has already opened before us can hardly be 
disputed. Experiments of the late Dr. Charcot and his colleagues 
in France, added to the earlier testimony of Mesmer, Braid, and 
others, have pretty conclusively shown that the mind is able to 
exert marvelous powers. In the hypnotic state, itself a mystery 
to science, subjects are made to obey the unexpressed commands 
of the operator. Their thoughts follow his suggestion. Their 
emotions are played upon like strings of an instrument, respond- 
ing exactly to the performer's touch. Even the will slavishly ex- 
erts itself to enact his thought. Stranger than all, perhaps, to 
those who so confidently rely upon their senses, the subject sees, 
tastes, or feels as he is silently bidden, regardless of external stim- 
ulus. Or, if the operator so wills, his senses cease to act, though 
all outer conditions for their exercise are present. 

Facts like these inevitably suggest that the mind is not a mere 
phenomenon of matter. Indeed, if granted, they prove that it ex- 
erts force itself, and is able to exercise that force beyond bodily 
limits. What acts as compelling cause cannot be classed as mere 
effect. Neither can we define force as a property of matter when it 
is displayed as a property of mind. Whatever may be its nature 
per se, it is lifted beyond physical causation. 

Now, as an energy acting outside the body, thought must have 
some appropriate medium of transmission. Concerning the hy- 
pothecated ether, Dr. Richardson of the British Royal Society 
says: " Without the ether there could be no motion; without it par- 
ticles of ponderable matter could not glide over each other; with- 
out it there could be no impulse to excite those particles into 
action. Ether connects sun with planet, planet with planet, man 
with planet, man with man. Without ether there could be no com- 
munication in the universe : no light, no heat, no phenomenon of 
motion." 

But with this subtile medium provided, we can comprehend how 
mind force can travel through space. Vibration aroused in this 
sensitive substance would flow outward reaching another brain, 
where we have only to postulate a translation of ethereal vibration 
into physical to have it registered upon that brain. Now, it is 
evident that if mind acts in an ethereal medium it cannot itself 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 47 

reside in brain-tissue. A centre from which force emerges must 
always lie behind, or within, the plane of its operations. Other- 
wise, although responsive vibration might be induced, there could 
be no direct transmission of force. 

To account for sensation Dr. Richardson found it necessary to 
assume the existence of a different, or varied, ether. He calls this 
nervous ether, and says : " The evidence in favor of the existence 
of an elastic medium pervading the nervous matter and capable of 
being influenced by simple pressure is all-convincing. In nervous 
structure there is unquestionably a true nervous fluid, as our pre- 
decessors taught. It occurs to my mind, however, that the verit- 
able fluid of nervous matter is not of itself sufficient to act as the 
subtile medium that connects the outer with the inner universe of 
man and animal. I think — and this is the modification I suggest 
to the older theory — there must be another form of matter present 
during life ; a matter which exists in the condition of vapor, or 
gas, which pervades the whole nervous organism, surrounds as an 
enveloping atmosphere each molecule of nervous structure, and is 
the medium of all motion communicated to and from the nervous 
centres." According to his view this is an individually-evolved 
medium, and therefore distinct from the ether of space. 

Recent experiments in what is called the externalization of 
sensation corroborate this opinion, for such a substance seems to 
have been actually extracted from living bodies. Subjects in a 
trance state have been insensible to pinching and pricking of the 
body, while at the same time they have felt pain when these opera- 
tions were repeated upon the air about them. Moreover, wounds, 
such as pin scratches, inflicted upon this invisible envelope, have 
promptly duplicated themselves upon the physical body, proving 
an interrelation of substances and an unbroken continuity from 
mind to body. 

It appears from these facts that ethereal, like physical, matter is 
of different grades, permitting varied functions and making pos- 
sible diverse activities ; and as spatial ether must pervade the 
body also, we are led to infer that the subtile form within the 
physical links together, or unites into one composite body, these 
various ethereal substances. Enshrining the mind, therefore, and, 
through sense avenues, gathering impressions from the outer 
world, this invisible double spans all the gaps existing between 
mind and its physical manifestations. Moreover, it furnishes a 
basis for all allied psychological phenomena, such as thought- 
transference, telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc., all de- 
pendent either upon thought transmission or upon internal sen- 
sation. Memory, too, is explained by its presence, since it offers a 
continuous medium in which impressions may inhere during 
molecular changes. 

In addition to all such evidence, the existence of an ethereal 
double is confirmed by a mass of objective proof which in any 
other department of nature would be accepted as incontrovertible. 
From every age and race we may glean testimony to the occasional 
appearance of ghosts, apparitions, shades of the dead, or what- 
ever else they may. have been called, down to the present when 



48 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

they masquerade as spirits of the departed. Under all names 
these vapory forms answer a common description, which applies 
equally to our hypothecated double, for it is substantial yet unlike 
the matter of our plane. We are evidently in a borderland be- 
tween mind and matter, where disclosures already made may serve 
as clues to regions often called unknowable ; for prove that mind 
acts in an ethereal medium, and the possibility of its continuance 
after death becomes clear : demonstrate that consciousness is 
separable from the body, and its existence in other states is made 
certain. 

Religion and science now stand side by side before the mystery 
of mind. Again the question arises : What is spirit ? Ancient 
wisdom answers : Spirit is life, it is consciousness, the one reality 
that through all changes of evolution remains ever the same. Its 
manifestations differ according to the various vehicles in which it 
is embodied, but its essential nature continues forever unchanged. 
Sleeping in the vegetable, dreaming in the animal, it awakes in 
man. Mind is consciousness unfolded to this stage of active 
thought, and therefore man, who perceives the relation between 
subject and object, becomes the only self-conscious denizen of 
earth, the only ego among its myriad creatures. Soul is the 
eternal basic medium in which life resides, a sublimated essence 
to unfamiliar thought scarcely distinguishable from spirit, but 
which is, nevertheless, a clothing, or vehicle, of life per se. Mind, 
therefore, is spirit in its essential nature, but in its manifestation it 
is soul. 

Now, if we remember that although matter is eternal in its 
basic nature, its present constitution has been evolved from primal 
element, or elements, it becomes evident that soul is a missing 
link in our old explanations. Over a gulf that seemed impassable 
it stretches force and substance. Creation by the energy of mind 
becomes at least thinkable, and evolution, upon the bosom of in- 
visible space, unrolls a visible world. 

Certainly, with such an origin, man's history should tell a dif- 
ferent story than would be possible had he sprung, by ever so slow 
degrees, from an animal ancestry. In the latter case, steady un- 
foldment should be the rule, savages passing through barbarous 
states onward to civilization, and leaving forever behind them out- 
grown conditions. All our facts confute this supposition. The 
persistence of savagery, and even its recurrence in regions where 
civilization long since flourished, puzzle the Darwinian school. 
Men little higher than the brute still exist, while history points, 
even in its dawning, to noble civilizations. Archaeology tells the 
same story of even a more remote past. Numerous vestiges of 
prehistoric civilization are found on our own continent, those of 
Yucatan especially leaving no doubt of the high development of 
its people in some forgotten epoch. 

The mystery vanishes, however, when we regard man as a spir- 
itual being, developing by contact with matter his intellectual 
nature, and thereby, by a reflex process, evolving a correspond- 
ingly better bodily instrument. By the gradual development of 
physical structure consciousness passes through as many changes 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 49 

of manifestation, and with every radical change of its embodiment 
must rouse anew its native powers. It follows, therefore, that 
mind develops in cycles, as history shows ; also, that it is most 
active when it has freed itself from material conditions. By this 
freedom is not meant lack of a body, but its subjugation and train- 
ing by the mind. It is for this reason that physical tendencies 
must be subdued before spiritual powers can be awakened. 

Some indication of what these may be is afforded by the phe- 
nomenon of genius, a very different thing from normal mental 
action. Genius may labor, but it never plods. Swift as an arrow 
to its mark, and over a pathway apparently as traceless, it leaps to 
truth. It knows, because it sees deep into the real nature of 
things. Spurning the senses, it uses mind itself to fathom nature, 
and spans the chasm between seen and unseen realms. Genius, 
then, is the unfettered power of mind, a flash of spirit itself, which 
offers us another link between man and his immortal soul. 

From the occasional flash of genius to full illumination is but a 
step in the process of unfoldment. Triumphing over the sluggish 
opposition of matter, which it has finally moulded into harmony 
with its requirements, mind has expanded into consciousness of 
the all. Veil after veil of matter has been lifted, each, in turn, re- 
vealing its own secrets and making clearer all the knowledge 
gained in lower realms. That the same process should continue 
into soul regions may logically be supposed. The mounting vision 
then would scan the world of spiritual causes, and see truth at last 
revealed. 

Revelation, therefore, is the natural insight of a perfected soul. 
As reason crowns man now, knowledge will reward him then. By 
an impartial law of spiritual growth it is attained, prophet and 
seer transmitting to unillumined minds truths needed for their 
guidance. The pure soul, seeing God, stretches a helping hand to 
weaker brothers, and writes for them upon some sacred scroll the 
laws of life and duty. 

So religions are founded when they are not merely versions of 
an older faith. Their fundamental identity is a necessity, and the 
strongest possible evidence of the truth of revelation. "God is no 
respecter of persons." At all times and with all races he has dealt 
impartially. Everywhere the story of man's spiritual origin has 
been told, and the hope of immortality implanted. Arrogance and 
egotism may claim a special favor, but the bibles of all races offer 
confutation. Their teachings may be differently expressed ; one 
or another aspect of spiritual truth may be emphasized ; but each 
reveals the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, the sacred- 
ness of duty. Each forbids selfishness and inculcates love ; and 
finally, through aspiration, all point to possible perfection of the 
soul. 



50 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



THE COSMOS SEPTENARY IN ITS CONSTITUTION ; 

MAN THE MIRROR OF THE COSMOS AND THINKER ; 

INNER AND OUTER MAN A SEVENFOLD BEING, 



THUS CORRESPONDING TO THE COSMOS. 






MRS. ISABEL COOPER-OAKLEY. 



The chairman has given me twenty-five minutes in which he 
wishes me to say what I have to say, and therefore I hope that all 
those who intended to go out a few moments ago, will kindly sit 
still for twenty-five minutes longer. 

A little while ago, when our brother Dr. Buck was speaking, 
he spoke of the Secret Doctrine and the wonderful way in which 
Madame Blavatsky had gathered together in that book the Secret 
Doctrine and the Wisdom Religion of the ages. Now a great deal 
I am going to say is taken directly from that book. You must 
remember I shall not pretend to prove to you in the short space 
of twenty-five minutes all that I am going to put forward, but the 
book is there. It is the source from which we draw our light, all 
those of us who are spiritually alive to Madame Blavatsky's teach- 
ings. It is the source from which we have learned. It is equally 
open to you yourselves. I am going to put forward an outline of 
the septenary classification, as given in the oldest systems in 
the world. 

Now, I want first to say one word as to why 7 is one of the most 
occult teachings. The septenary classification was the oldest 
division into which all the different differentiations — spirit, mind, 
intellect, the physical, were divided, and that number 7 was taken 
from the natural laws of life. It had been seen and noticed by the 
ancient sages of the world that 7 was the governing principle of 
all the functioning powers of this manifestation of ourselves. 7 
is the number which rules the moon. The moon changes four 
times in twenty-eight days ; 7 is the number of colors of the 
spectroscope ; there are 7 notes in the musical scale ; 7 comes out 
in nearly all physiological conditions, in the functions of illness 
and health ; 7 is the number classified, arranged, and studied by 
the most ancient philosophers in the oldest times ; therefore, it is 
by going back to these oldest sources that we are able to take 
up the number and study this number which they have put forward 
as standing at the back of this physical manifestation of ours. The 
cosmos is septenary in its constitution ; that means that the unity 
of which Brother Chakravarti was speaking this morning has 7 
different ways of manifesting itself to us, and that 7 is the only 
way by which we can really sense and arrange it. Now Madame 
Blavatsky says in the Secret Doctrine that this number 7 extends 
through the cosmos, in the planetary chains, in the earth, in all 
the conditions of life, both in the consciousness and physical senses 
and everything else. And she says that if we watch it from the 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 5 1 

material atom to the element of spirit, we find this number 7 
making itself manifest. 

The 7 fundamental principles of our constitution are classified 
as follows : God ; it is what is called the absolute ; it is that from 
which everything has come and to which everything has to return, 
and in which everything is done ; the next aspects are those of 
spirit and mind and matter, which make up four. Then you 
come to will, the creative impulse in the forms of intellect and 
energy, sometimes called the Logos of the Greeks, the universal 
ether and life. Within the septenary classification, as the law 
variously energises, is the cosmos manifested to us, and thus do all 
the manifested forms of life come to us in their conditions of 
manifestation. That, of course, is upon the cosmic plane. The 
planetary chain we are told is under the same septenary condition 
of differentiation. Standing in the planetary chain is our earth, 
and here we come again to the septenary classification, here we 
come to the principles and conditions of energy and form which 
we ourselves know something about. We have here on the earth, 
water, earth, air, fire, and ether ; that makes five elements, so called, 
which are now made known to us. Ether is very gradually being 
known at this present moment, and behind ether are two more 
which we shall gradually come into touch with as man's own 
senses evolve up to that point. Then we shall be able to under- 
stand these finer conditions of matter; for remember we are 
speaking of matter under these conditions, we are talking of 
matter of which we ourselves at the present moment have no 
knowledge, a matter so tenuous, so fine and subtile in its properties, 
that it really stands to us as spirit, while spirit lies far back of it. 
We are taught that the septenary correspondence runs in a perfect 
and exact way right through the whole of this differentiation ; and 
man is sevenfold in his constitution. 

Now, we have in Theosophical teachings what are called the 
seven principles of man, and I will run very briefly through these 
for you, because it will make some of the other speakers more un- 
derstandable when they speak of these principles under the terms 
of conditions of consciousness. The first principle, starting from 
the spiritual p^le, is spirit or Atma, as it is called in Sanscrit ter- 
minology. The second principle, counting downwards, is what is 
called Buddhi, the wisdom, the soul, the entity, the intelligence. 
The third principle, counting downwards again from the purest 
spiritual pole, is what is called Afanas, the mind, that is in connec- 
tion and in correspondence with the universal mind in which all is 
contained, that universal ideation from which we all come out. 
The fourth, coming still downwards, is what is called Jfama, which 
means the whole of our nervous, emotional, sensory nature, the 
whole man which may come under the mind — the emotional and 
sensitive man. Next we come to the fifth principle, counting 
downwards again, and this is called in the East, Prana; it is in the 
whole world that principle which we might call cohesion. It is 
the life principle which holds the whole of the man together, 
and when that principle departs from a man, he breaks down, he 
has passed to another condition of subjective consciousness on 



52 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

another plane beyond. The next principle, counting downwards 
still, is what we call the astral body, the dopp el- ganger, the double of 
a man, the actual man in a finer, more tenuous condition than the 
material man as we know him. You must remember that there is 
a great deal of evidence of this astral man, and you can find it if 
you choose to look for it for yourselves. You have only to read D' 
Assier's Posthumous Humanity. He has collected together a record 
of the appearances of this astral man. The next in the list, what 
you might call the seventh counting still downwards, for often we 
count the other way — it does not matter which way you take these 
principles — the seventh is the physical man, which we Theosophists 
look upon simply as the shell in which we live, in which we have 
temporary being, which we use as a vehicle for evolution and for 
making ourselves known during the condition we call earth-life. 
This condition is in touch with the earth condition, and there is a 
perfect correspondence between all these conditions in man and 
the conditions of earth-life or the elements outside; because corre- 
spondence is at the very basis of the whole of the Theosophical 
method of classification. Now, you must remember one thing, 
please, that when we talk about the principles of man, we do not 
mean to speak of things that are put one over the other like the 
skins of an onion, that you can take apart or put together in little 
pieces. All these are different conditions of consciousness which 
interplay and intertwine within each other. There is a very good 
illustration given by a writer in The New Cosmos. The author 
gives the following illustration. He takes a bottle and fills 
it with steam and stops the bottle so that none of the steam can 
escape; then he puts into the same bottle as much alcoholic vapor 
as he has already put steam, but as the latter is finer it interpene- 
trates the interstices between the molecules of the steam. Why? 
Because they are each governed by their own laws and conditions 
of matter. He then puts in addition into this bottle still other 
vapor. Why can he do this ? Because these vapors are governed 
by their own laws belonging to their own conditions of matter, and 
they do not interfere with each other. You may multiply that out 
to seven, and you will understand what we mean by the interpene- 
tration of the seven principles of man. We mean that man is 
made up of these different conditions, essences of matter, matter 
being an essence according to the Theosophical interpretation. 
These principles are inseparable from man; they make up the sum 
total of man, and each is governed by its own laws and each be- 
longs to its own part of this wonderful cosmos of ours. So, then, 
this man is a sevenfold being. 

Now we come to the inner and the outer man. The four lower 
conditions or principles of which I am speaking now, the last 
named, made up of the physical man, the astral man, prana, this 
cohesion, and kama rupa, or our desires, these form the lower 
quaternary, the four impermanent principles. That is, these four 
lower conditions of matter are what we change with each birth and 
life ; these four conditions of matter in the vehicle, the body in 
which we live, are the impermanent principles. The other three 
above are called the inner man, the permanent individual, and are 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 53 

what are called Jfa/ias, Buddhi, and the Spirit, which is that portion 
of the divine Atma, that portion of the divine Spirit, we share with 
the whole cosmos. 

Brother Judge speaking just before luncheon said we come 
back and back into this world to live and to work out the condi- 
tions started by us in other lives. It is this triple portion of man, 
this permanent part that includes the spirit and the soul of man, 
that comes back and back to earth-life ; for that is what is called 
the real, permanent man, and in the oldest Eastern philosophies it 
is looked upon as the only permanent part of this life at all. That 
is called the reality of life, while the physical body, which we West- 
erns look upon as of so much importance, is looked upon by them 
as the gross, the lowest part of man. Why? Because that which 
furnishes the only permanent part of us is that part which remains 
from one earth-life to the other, and through it we carry on that 
string of spiritual experience which makes us grow up to the per- 
fect evolution of the future, because it is really ourself. 

Now, the next part of what I want to say — I am condensing 
what I have to say into a very brief space — the next point is, man 
is a creator of the cosmos and the thinker. So at the present mo- 
ment we have had the sevenfold classification outside in the whole 
cosmos ; we have had the sevenfold classification in the planetary 
chains ; we have the sevenfold classification in this earth-life, and 
finally you come down and down and down, in form, size and 
amount until you come to man himself, man who has mirrored in 
himself and in his soul the whole of these wonderful powers of the 
cosmos without. We can mirror in our minds the whole of the 
universe, the whole of the energies, and the whole of the manifes- 
tation that lies in the great cosmos without us. That is really the 
point of view from which we are bound to look at man and to look 
at ourselves. We have to look at ourselves as mirrors; not passive 
mirrors, but as active mirrors, as reflecting and bearing in our- 
selves every power, and every force, and every energy that is in the 
cosmos without. As one of the speakers this afternoon told you, 
you stand as the Microcosm to the great Macrocosm, and it is 
through the unity of life and manifestation we get the idea of our 
responsibilities. We have within us the potential energy of the 
whole divine life, that spiritual unity of which Brother Chakravarti 
was speaking this morning, that spiritual unity which belongs to 
the whole physical and cosmical system, which is focused, so to 
say, when it comes to the life of man. There is no energy, force, 
matter, nothing in the universe without us which is not within us 
at the present time, mirrored in us in a potential and latent condi- 
tion, waiting for us to bring it out, waiting for us to evolve our- 
selves up to that point at which we may come into touch with the 
higher forms and conditions of the universe. As spirit is the basis 
of the whole of these manifestations, what we call matter is only 
one aspect of spirit. What we call the material aspect of our body 
is only one aspect of that divine spiritual life which is really at the 
back of the whole of this manifestation. I said just now that mind 
is the mirror of the universe. You must remember there is one 
great difference between mind as it is now, between this earth as 



54 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

it is now, and the cosmos of which I was speaking a little while ago. 
There is such a thing in man as free will, and although the will of 
the cosmos is perfect, is in a perfect condition, the will of man is 
not yet perfect. Each one therefore is dealing with a different set 
of conditions altogether from others. Man has that amount of free 
will in him that he can make the conditions surrounding him in this 
earth-life either perfect or imperfect, and the continued selfishness 
of man, counting from one age to another, from one generation to 
another generation, has resulted in what we call evil. You must 
remember according to the oldest teaching in the world, there is 
no £M\\per se, but only such as we, as men and women, have made 
by their own selfishness. And what we have now to do is to reduce 
this to a minimum, to draw it back again into goodness. 

The whole of evil is the outcome of separateness or selfishness. 
It is looked upon in the East as the very greatest evil, this evil of 
separateness. What we are trying to get back to in the moral, 
mental, and spiritual world is that fundamental unity concerning 
which you have been spoken to to-day. Speaking of man as a 
mirror of the universe, we have within us therefore the possibility 
of being mirrors both for good and evil. We may either carry out 
these ideas mirrored in us through appropriate conditions of matter, 
as at this moment, and hand them on with a hardening, growing 
selfishness, or we may try to cultivate our lower natures into what 
is higher, purer, and less selfish, and so try to bring back the whole 
of its differentiation to that one unity of divine unselfishness. You 
must remember it depends upon ourselves entirely whether we will 
mirror what is good and unselfish, or what is bad and selfish. We 
can make ourselves of all that is pure, good and true ; we may 
draw from this great cosmos around us all of its divinest principles 
by making ourselves one with it, or we may draw to ourselves to 
focus and mirror in ourselves the whole of this selfishness of the 
world, the whole of the narrow thought for our brother man and 
our sister woman. And so we can again accentuate it and send it 
out again to the world, making a little more selfishness and a little 
more harm in the world. Therefore our responsibilities are great, 
since we do contain within us the whole of this great force. We 
are ourselves in our hearts the very centre of this divine life; it 
circles without and it circles within ; it is mirrored without and it 
is mirrored within ; and we by making our mirrors pure and clean, 
we by living up to and trying to reflect that divine light and life 
without, may extend through the whole material world as we are 
now dealing with it, that divine life and principle. This is that 
purer condition of tenuous matter I was speaking about a little 
while ago, instead of the gross conditions of material existence we 
are now putting up for ourselves in our Western civilization. Only 
by struggling against this material condition can we make ourselves 
that perfectly pure mirror of that divine life without. This you 
must remember was the teaching that H. P. B. has left for us to 
hand down, this was the teaching of her to whom earnest Theoso- 
phists owe the whole of their spiritual life ; this is the teaching she 
has given us to hand down to every man and to every woman who 
feels inclined to make themselves in this way mirrors of the divine 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 55 

life without, to hand it on to future ages unbroken as it came to 
her, unbroken as it was kept by those great Masters, to mirror it 
and focus it and send it out with pure unselfishness and love. It 
has a moral aspect, a mental aspect, and a material aspect. The 
seven steps through which we must pass to reach that divine life 
belong to the moral world, and they are equally as real and as true 
as the whole material manifestation without. If you want to read 
of the septenary classification in the moral world, if you want to 
read of the septenary classification in the spiritual world, there is 
one book written by H. P. B. called The Voice of the Silence for 
those who want to mirror what is most divine and pure and true 
in this life ; and we recommend that book and those words of 
devotion she has written down for us. 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS; EVOLUTION 
OF THE SOUL. 



PROFESSOR CHAKRAVARTI. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : This morning I had the pleasure of 
quoting for you from the most sacred books of the East — the 
Upanishads. In India the Upanishads are compared to the cow, 
the holy animal of the Indies, the giver of life and prosperity to 
the people, and it is said that Shri Krishna, one of the gods of the 
Indians, milked the milk of divine wisdom from this cow and put 
it into another equally holy and sacred book, the Bhagavad Gita. 
This book is the very sacred treasure of the Indies, this is the 
blessed bible of their nation, and this is the book which has called 
forth so much admiration from men like Schlegel and others, so 
that they have burst out in unbounded terms of ecstacy. From 
that book I will quote one sloka which puts in a nut-shell, in the 
language of the gods, the Sanscrit, which language alone is capable 
of condensing so much inspirational matter within such a small 
space. [Here the speaker recited in the Sanscrit.] 

This means that the senses of human beings are great, but 
greater than the senses is the mind ; greater than the mind is 
Buddhi, by which is meant the higher intellect (the pure reason of 
Kant); and above Buddhi is "That." The first classification, that 
is, of the physical senses, includes the various organs of perception, 
and of touch, and of feeling, which are called in Sanscrit jnanen- 
driyas and karmendriyas, or organs of action and organs of percep- 
tion. The second is the mind with which all of you are exceed- 
ingly familiar, the organum through which you sense, the field 
upon which we have perception, sensation, and intellection. With 
these two I do not propose to trouble you, because these are 
familiar to the ordinary run of human beings in the present age. 

The mind constitutes part of the entity we call man. But 
there is another, a higher and a nobler self, the very existence of 
which we are oblivious of in the every-day, common-place hurry 
and endeavor of life and material existence. It is only when our 



56 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

physical senses, and the mind, which is the product of those senses, 
are lulled to sleep by the harmony of Nature, we find coming to us 
a voice mellifluous and divine, from that self which sleeps within 
us, telling us that we are not base, groveling creatures, limited and 
powerless in our capacities, but that we are the very angels of 
Heaven ; that our capacities are infinite ; that our future is a 
future which is inconceivable and has no bounds. Verily, thou 
art an angel of Heaven, fallen in the mire of matter, although thou 
dost not recognize thyself. Therefore we hear the voice from the 
paradise we once inhabited and the denizens of which we once 
were ; and we hear the voice of the bird, which is represented 
poetically in one of the finest conceits of the Indian philosophy. 
In the philosophy of India man is represented by two birds sitting 
on a tree. The tree is the body, the physical encasement ; there 
are two birds — one is the bird which sits on one of the boughs and 
eats the fruit of the tree and enjoys it ; but there is another bird 
which sits higher up at the top of the tree, and eats not, enjoys 
not, but witnesseth only. This represents the two selfs in man, 
one the lower, which is always hungering for gratification, for 
satisfaction, for physical desire, and eats of the fruit of physical 
existence. But the other one is above and higher, and cares not 
for the gratification that comes from the senses, but is silent in its 
purity, watches what is going on, extracts the essence of the lower, 
and reigns supreme in its profound silence. These two selfs have 
to be realized before you can realize that there can be two states 
of consciousness besides our own usual state. But before coming 
to that I shall complete my explanation of the sloka I have quoted. 

The fourth thing that is mentioned in the sloka is not given any 
name. Let me call your attention to the fact that in translating 
the sloka I told you that above the plane of this pure reason is — no 
word can say what it is — "That." The mighty poets, the Rishis, 
the sages who claim to stand in the burning presence of divinity 
itself, have not the courage to put in words the majesty of that 
existence. It is, as has been already said, the thing from which 
rnind and intellect and words come down. [Here the speaker 
again recited a verse in Sanscrit.] You do not find " That " any- 
where and come back baffled. It is the burning bush in the 
presence of which one of your Jewish sages said : " Take off 
thy shoes; the ground which thou treadest is sacred." Yes, no 
shoes can be permitted in the region where only spirit reigneth 
supreme. All personality, all thought, all self, all thought of sep- 
aration, all thought of the vehicle must be given up, parted with 
forever, before we can come within these sacred precincts. That 
is the Atma of the Hindus. 

Corresponding to these four states, or rather the various parts 
of man, are the four states of consciousness, of which I have to 
speak now. According to Sanscrit' psychology they are called by 
four different names. The first is called the Jagratha conscious- 
ness, by which is meant the waking consciousness, the conscious- 
ness with which all of us are familiar. The second is called the 
Svapna consciousness, or the consciousness of the dream plane; it 
means not only that with which you are familiar as dreams, but 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 57 

climbs on to the plane of the Astral light, on which seers can see 
so many things not ordinarily visible to the ordinary man ; it is 
the plane of the clairvoyant, thought-reading, and all phenomena 
of a similar nature. Above that plane of consciousness is the plane 
of Sus/iupti, the literal meaning of which is "dreamless slumber." 
That plane of consciousness is one in which there is neither dream 
nor waking consciousness ; that is the plane into which people of 
the ordinary run sometimes fall when they sleep and do not dream, 
but of the nature of which they have no remembrance, because 
their intellect is incapable of bringing down any realization of 
that sublime existence. And above this state of Sushupti is the 
greatest state, called in Sanscrit Turya. Turya is the state in 
which there is no matter, nor mind, nor time, nor space, nor virtue, 
nor vice ; it is that state into which the greatest seers have now 
and again risen; it is that state the fire of the glimpses of which have 
made those who enjoyed it burst out into mantrams of mighty po- 
tency ; it is that state into which your divine Christ himself used 
to fall and in the ecstasies of which he uttered : " Father and I 
are one." Yes, it is then, and not till then, that man can consider 
himself divine. When once in front of that altar of truth he real- 
izes no difference, he is once more back to the source of his exist- 
ence — the stream has gone to the ocean, the drop has dropped into 
the bosom of the lotus, and then there comes peace, harmony, joy, 
a sense of unity, which the poor struggling words of human beings 
must strive in vain to represent. That is the higher condition of 
consciousness — the Atma. We run up into these conditions by 
gradually working up, by easy gradations, from the physical plane 
of existence in which man considers himself as apart from every 
other human being. For here his eyes reveal to him that the body 
is a house of clay which parts every individual from every other. 
Not so in the plane higher. In the Astral plane man sees certain 
subtile forces emanating from the body of every individual, affect- 
ing every individual ; he sees the thoughts imprinting themselves 
on the cosmic light, working for good or evil, and he realizes that 
man is not the isolated being he is supposed to be. 

One step higher and we come to the plane of spiritual con- 
sciousness. There he is face to face with one of the grandest realities 
of existence, that which I postulated to you this morning. He sees 
for himself and realizes that what appears to separate one individual 
from another are but emanations like the rays of the sun ; that each 
is bound with the other, that each has the same consciousness, each 
has the same source, each the same home. The evil of separate- 
ness therefore is killed out until he reaches the condition which is 
ineffable, unutterable, immeasurable. The union of the lower with 
the higher self is really the object of the aspiration of every religion 
that has been pronounced on the surface of the earth. It is because 
we have allowed this hydra-headed monster of the lower conscious- 
ness to divert our very existence that we know nothing of the higher 
self, because we have tasted the sinful fruit of physical knowledge 
that we are thrust out of the Paradise which is ours by birth ; 
it is because we never look to the centre of our being and are 
immersed in matter, in physical pursuits, in the gratification of the 



58 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

senses, in the enjoyment of luxuries, that we never get one breath 
of the sweet balmy air of our home. Exiles we walk upon this 
earth ; exiles shall we remain until we can open the gates of our 
hearts to the light, and let at least one ray of that divine sun pene- 
trate into the dark crannies of our constitution. (Applause.) The 
spirit is the real, the one great reality, and all the other states of 
consciousness are nothing compared to the reality ; they are but 
illusions cast by our senses. The moon which shines resplendently 
in a dark night projects itself betimes into the body of a cloud 
when it rises above the horizon, and it grows dark. It is the sun 
that gives light to the moon. The consciousness which you con- 
sider now to be the only reality, the physical consciousness which 
you have allowed to divert your whole being, resides only in the 
background, is unreal, and is to be seen shadowy and vague in the 
presence of that sun of spiritual consciousness which, when it 
dawns, bedims all light, because all the other states of conscious- 
ness are but reflections of that one glorious light. [Here the 
speaker recited a verse in Sanscrit.] 

This means : " By Him is everything brightened ; by the touch 
of his hand is every article lightened." You have therefore to pass 
from these lower states of consciousness by subduing your passions, 
by conquering all the desires of the flesh, by making your gaze look 
inward rather than downwards. These are the two birds indicated 
in "the Shastras ; one is the material, physical body, the other is 
divine. You have to choose between these two birds. You may 
have all the luxuries of the flesh, but how long can they help you ? 
Your physical body, this poor house of clay, is all illusion, destined 
to die, existing only on the stem of the spirit. To-day it blooms, 
te-morrow it withers and is cast away. Choose, if you like, these 
ephemeral pleasures of the senses ; but the wise man, resisting all 
temptations, knowing their temporary and transitory character, 
tramples them under his feet, conquers like the warrior the lower 
temptations, and mounts up the perilous and majestic ladder of 
truth on which is the divine, where he finds eternal peace and 
harmony. 

Again in the Shastras : [Reciting in Sanscrit.] 

" Pleasures of the senses are those that are felt only by the 
child. The wise know the lessons of truth and the nature of ex- 
istence ; they condescend not to seek the permanent among the im- 
permanent." It is therefore essential for man, who has to evolve 
his soul, to try to conquer temptation ; he should try to live up to 
the very highest ideals of life, and then he may be able to enter as 
time goes on into that sanctuary of praise where the sun shines 
and no clouds of sin or sorrow can intrude upon the sacred heights. 

Adjourned until 8 p. m. 

FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 15. 

Mr. Judge : — Brothers and Sisters : We have made a slight but 
probably a grateful change in the program. We have taken nothing 
out, but we have added something to it without increasing the length 
of the session. By some inadvertence in making up the printed 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 59 

program we omitted a paper from its proper place, which should 
have been read by Dr. Anderson, on " Reincarnation as applied to 
the sex problem," and we have injected Dr. Anderson's, which will 
take fifteen minutes, into the proceedings of this evening. We 
have made another change also, and Mrs. Cooper-Oakley, whom 
we heard this morning for a very short time, will take up this even- 
ing one-half^ of my subject; that is, instead of myself dealing with 
the Theosophical view of death, Mrs. Cooper-Oakley will deal with 
that subject. Then the evening will be ended by Mrs. Besant's 
taking up the subject which is assigned to her, that is " Karma." 
Please give attention to Dr. Anderson. 



REINCARNATION AS APPLIED TO THE SEX PROBLEM. 



DR. JEROME A. ANDERSON. 



The differentiation of sex, as seen in the Vegetable, Animal, 
and Human kingdoms, at a first glance might seem to be only a 
method adopted by Nature to ensure the perpetuation of form and 
the preservation of species. Traced from the apparently asexual 
cell up through all the slight variations of form and function with 
which it is associated, it culminates in the human race in two 
distinctly marked types of character, in which the merely physio- 
logical question of procreation has become of secondary import- 
ance. We are therefore compelled to look more deeply into the 
problem, and in doing so, it is quickly seen that sex is but an 
example upon the material plane of that mysterious Duality in 
Unity which is at the basis of all differentiation, and hence of all 
manifestation in the universe. 

This Duality in Unity which makes philosophically conceivable 
the necessary postulate that everything in the universe is resolv- 
able into an ultimate, absolute Unity ; of which Unity the infinite 
manifestations of Nature are but infinite aspects, may, perhaps, be 
best studied on this plane by a study of its purest type — electricity. 
Here we have one fluid exhibiting two opposite states, both neces- 
sary to the existence of the fluid — or, at least, to its manifestation 
— apparently ever seeking equilibrium, yet never attaining it ; 
causing bodies dissimilarly electrified to madly rush together, only 
to be as violently repelled when the object of the union has appar- 
ently been accomplished ; exhibiting in these ceaseless attractions 
and repulsions a giant energy which, when chained by man, makes 
all other forces yield obeisance to it, and when chained by Nature 
holds stars and worlds in harmonious motion. For it is the attrac- 
tion and repulsion of that mysterious energy, whose action on 
earth we see manifested as electricity, which are the centrifugal 
and centripetal forces holding the planets in their orbits, and of 
which the "gravitation " of modern science expresses but one mode 
of its dual action. If gravity were a single force, causing material 
bodies to "attract all other portions of matter with a force directly 



[E THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

proportional to the product of the mass, and inversely proportional 
to the square of the distance between them," which is the state- 
ment of Newton's law, and which also expresses the law of mag- 
netic or electrical attraction — then would those bodies known as 
comets surely fall into the sun upon their startlingly near ap- 
proaches to the latter, in describing the perihelion of their orbits. 
Their mass is almost infinitely lighter than that of the sun, and if 
Newton's law of mass and distance governing the "pull" of 
gravitation were true, no amount of accelerated motion due to 
momentum could prevent this result — a fact startlingly apparent 
when they pass perihelion and recede from the enormous attraction 
of the sun — an attraction which, at the comparatively immense 
distance of the earth, represents a force acting upon this planet 
which would snap in twain a steel rod 162 miles in diameter as 
easily as a cobweb. In the fact of their being so nearly on the 
same plane of substance as the sun that their close approach per- 
mits an actual transfer of electricity, thus causing them to become 
similarly electrified, and bringing the repulsive energy of the elec- 
tric fluid to bear, is to be found the reason for this otherwise inex- 
plicable phenomenon — their escape upon these near approaches. 

Applying this electrical law that similarly electrified bodies 
attract one another, while those dissimilarly electrified are re- 
pelled, gives us a clue not only to the infinitely small question of 
the manifestation of sex, but also to the infinitely greater one of 
the eternal manifestation of worlds or universes — a reason, scien- 
tific and logical, for the alternate periods of objective and subject- 
ive life which Eastern Philosophy has recognized and describes 
under the beautiful metaphor of the " Days and Nights of Brahm." 
For this endless Motion or Breath, which is at the origin of all life, 
and which by the very law of its own existence can never cease its 
eternal action, stands revealed as to its mode of motion, however 
incomprehensible its origin may be to us. We can perceive that 
this law of electrical attraction and repulsion, thus forever striving 
to restore equilibrium only to utterly destroy this equilibrium 
when attained, is one which, even if it acted blindly and mechan- 
ically, would forever forbid inaction, death, or rest taking place in 
all the unthinkable cycles of eternity. Physical science declares, 
and apparently with justice, that all physical forces tend towards 
a state of final equilibrium — one which Flammarion terms Abso- 
lute Death, and when all the suns and worlds shall have died, this 
scientist speculates upon a possible new origin of force and conse- 
quent evolution by the collision of two dead, wandering suns ! 
Yet the law of attraction and repulsion shows us that when 
electrical equilibrium shall have been established the terrific 
repulsion of bodies all similarly electrified will rend every mole- 
cule asunder, and that there cannot remain one single molecular 
combination of matter within the universe. By such steps, re- 
quiring almost eternal periods of time for their enactment, will 
all the matter of the universe seek more and more ethereal, 
or — to us — subjective conditions, and when some equally incom- 
prehensible limit of motion is reached in this direction, in the 
course of still other immeasurable eternities, a universe of matter 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 6 1 

as it now is, will reappear. In the descending sweep of this 
mighty Motion of the Great Breath, as each plane of substance 
approaches a state of equilibrium, there will be formed connecting 
points between this and the plane towards which the electric vibra- 
tions are driving matter — Laya centres, the Secret Doctrine calls 
them, points which are dissimilar in their electrical condition to 
all the matter driven to a lower plane, and which points, therefore, 
attract the matter of this lower plane under the law of the attrac- 
tion of dissimilars, and around which are thus built slowly and 
after many "wars in heaven," suns and worlds. Such Laya Cen- 
tres, positive to all molecular matter, and in the state of suns, pour, 
in the descending arc of evolution, mighty streams of life and 
energy which are thence reflected upon and give life and energy 
to their planets as well as all matter upon such lower planes. 
Yet this stream, pouring light, heat, and life upon our planetary 
system through our sun, carries with it the certainty of the some- 
time destruction of that to which it now gives life, when the state 
of equilibrium which physical science prophesies shall have been 
approximately attained. The very measure of time during which 
our solar system will endure is given, had we but skill to compute 
it, in the motion of the pith balls which dance between the poles 
of the electrical toy. For the fraction of a second required for 
equilibrium to become established in these is in strictly accurate 
proportion to the time required for the same condition to obtain 
throughout our solar system. 

All this may, no doubt, seem a digression, yet a proper conception 
of this law of opposite poles or opposing states of the same force, 
of Duality in Unity, as exemplified in the electrical law of attraction 
and repulsion, is absolutely necessary to the proper conception of 
the relation sex bears to the human soul. We can perceive that as 
the electrical energy thus vibrates from plane to plane of substance 
in its efforts to establish an Universal equilibrium — an equilibrium 
which the very law of its own being makes possible only in infinity, 
or never — the whole Universe will thus gradually became differ- 
entiated into great planes, each of which will be negative to that 
above, and positive to that below. We can also perceive that on 
any plane where the process of electrical equilibrium is in active 
progress that the process of evolution is of necessity also in active 
progress. Such is the condition of our Universe at present, in 
which there are no two molecules exactly similarly electrified, and in 
which the matter, in a state of unstable equilibrium, is electrified, 
controlled, and ensouled by electrical or life energy from the 
higher one which, compared to the lower, is infinitely more stable. 
Now Consciousness, Force, and Substance are three hypostases of 
the One Absolute or Unknowable, and are eternally associated. 
Therefore, the human soul, being easily demonstrable as an ego or 
entity occupying a plane of consciousness far above that of the 
molecular cells of its body, is, when compared with the unstable 
condition of the latter, on a plane of stable, controlling equilibrium. 
On its own plane, the processes of evolution or of equilibrium 
having been completed for the cycle, the opposing forces of duality 
are at rest. It is therefore stable and positive to its body ; is a 



62 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

conscious Laya Centre, so to speak, through which flows conscious- 
ness that ensouls, experiences, and controls evolutionary modifi- 
cation of the eternal life-energy seeking equilibrium on the plane 
below, or that of the body. Hence, the Human Soul, or that which 
in Theosophy is technically known as the Higher Ego, the Thinker, 
the true Individuality, the Reincarnating Ego, and so on, is sexless. 
It has after an almost infinite cycle of duality rebecome Unity on 
its own stable plane, and that differentiation which would correspond 
to sex upon this is unknown. But as the soul, the Pilgrim in the 
Cycle of Necessity, descends by incarnating in these human-animal 
forms, in order to consciously conquer this plane where the dual 
action of the One Life, or evolution, is in active operation, it has of 
necessity to incarnate in bodies having now the preponderance of 
the negative and again of the positive manifestations of the One 
Life. Hence, though being itself sexless, it incarnates now in a 
series of male forms, and again in a series of female forms, in its 
necessarily alternating efforts to bring about conscious harmony 
or equilibrium upon the molecular plane. It can never know all 
the possibilities of life or of consciousness here without touching 
the two poles, without thus experiencing here the two aspects of 
the One Life. 

Looked at from this higher view-point, the sex problem is 
solved. Reincarnating now as a male and again as a female, the 
human soul symmetrically widens its conscious area and stores the 
results of these experiences in both the poles of existence upon its 
own stable plane. Therefore is all the talk and all the hope of 
man and woman becoming similar mentally, or in any other way, 
except as countless ages of evolution shall have rounded out and 
equilibrated both aspects of life, but childish babbling. They are 
at the opposite poles of conscious being upon this plane — poles which 
can never meet nor merge here, but which can only be unified 
when the sexless, passionless human soul shall have acquired all 
necessary or possible experiences ; when it shall have completed 
its conscious partaking in, and supervision of, the processes of 
evolution now in active operation. 

Thus by recognizing and teaching the true relations our souls 
bear to our bodies, that upon its own habitation the soul is sexless 
and passionless, Theosophy offers but another view-point from 
which to obtain a broader, more philosophical conception of human 
life and its duties, responsibilities, and opportunities. The 
recognition of the law of Karma, or the law of Cause and Effect, 
which compels the further recognition of the fact of the necessary 
reincarnation of the human soul under this law, will restore the 
relation of the sexes to the pure and holy condition from which it 
has been degraded by ignorance. 

All churches unite in declaring marriage to be a sacrament, but 
which of them knows or teaches why this is so ? The very term 
"sacrament" has been debauched by sensual philologists into a 
phallic significance. The mental attitude of the West toward the 
sex relation is simply appalling. Instead of being regarded as the 
solemn, sacrificial avenue through which a human soul — a future 
god — returns to take up again its life tasks ; instead of being 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 6$ 

limited solely and religiously to procreative purposes for thus fur- 
nishing holy and pure tenements for those bound to us by the ten- 
derest ties, the most loving associations, in past lives — for those 
for whom we would have died then and would die now after they 
join us — how do we regard it ? How have our very priests and 
ministers taught us to regard it? Let the recommendation of St. 
Paul, let the classic couplet of Martin Luther — holy monk and 
Founder of Protestantism — be the answer! 

Marriage in the West is but little better than legalized prosti- 
tution ; its high and holy office unrecognized ; its pure, creative 
passion brutalized, sensualized and entirely perverted. It is the 
duty and the mission of Theosophy to correct and reform all this. 
It can only be accomplished by and through our deeper philosophy 
of human life; our sterner, higher code of human ethics. No 
time-serving Martin Luther nor specious pleading St. Paul can 
ever distort or pervert ethical conceptions founded upon demon- 
strable laws of nature, together with the most satisfactory logical 
and philosophical deductions and inductions therefrom. We must 
teach the West to recognize in woman not the weak, passive vehicle, 
created as an avenue to a sensuous Paradise, but a soul transiently 
at the opposite pole of material existence, and a pole which, of 
necessity, has in it as deep a significance, as god-like potentialities, 
as that which our ignorant, brutish egotism has caused us to regard 
as superior. It must be recognized that the sex which is her's in 
this life may be ours in our next — must be ours in many future 
lives ere we attain a symmetrical evolution of character. The law of 
Karma, ever restoring disturbed equilibrium, is omnipotent and in- 
violable ; and by our very attitude towards the opposite sex, be it 
that of man or woman, we are creating character traits which may 
have to be sharply corrected by unpleasant experiences in that op- 
posite sex during our next life. 

By the light thus afforded from the standpoint of the true soul 
must the sex relation be comprehended ; and, once rightly under- 
stood, few teachings are capable of a more quick, more sure ameli- 
oration of a vast amount of human woe. In this relation we con- 
sciously take at least a minor part in the creative processes of 
nature ; we claim a portion of our future heritage as gods and 
guardians of lower Avorlds. Its abuse, therefore, reaches to the 
very depths of our spiritual being in its karmic effects. Let the 
gibbering inmates of insane asylums, let the wan sufferers from 
nameless, shameful, terrible diseases, testify whether this is true 
or not upon the physical plane; let our Police records, our Divorce 
Courts answer upon the moral plane. Let us restore marriage to 
its pristine purity ; let us recognize that sex is of this plane only ; 
that the soul ought to — is entitled to — live far above the unreason- 
ing desires of the animal kingdom below us, to which and even 
lower than which we descend when our motive is but sensuous de- 
sire. By conquering this tyrant which we have invited to occupy 
the throne of our mind, we shall be free to use the creative energy, 
now perverted and wasted, upon intellectual and spiritual planes. 
So shall we re-enter the Paradise from which we have been expelled ; 
so shall we reclaim once more our lost heritage. 



64 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

" What is the flaming sword but sin, 

Which blinds our eyes at Eden's gates ? 
Lo, purity shall enter in. 

Nor fear all adverse gods, nor fates ! " 

And we shall re-enter ; not clothed with the raiment of inno- 
cence, which is but the garment of ignorance, but with those in- 
finitely surpassing them ; with robes whose web is the shining 
threads of perfect knowledge, and which is crossed by the woof 
of purified passions, of slain desires, of upward strivings, of toil- 
ings for others, of daily and hourly sacrificings of the lower to the 
Higher Self. 



THE THEOSOPHICAL VIEW OF DEATH. 



MRS. ISABEL COOPER-OAKLEY. 



Within twenty-five minutes I have to say what I can on the 
Theosophical view of Death. If there is any one subject more 
than another which appeals to the whole human race, which comes 
equally to us all, be we rich or poor, be we high or low, it is death. 

Theosophy has very large and decided teachings about death, 
and as my time is limited I shall divide it into two sections. I will 
deal first with the practical or technical teaching of Theosophy 
upon death, and secondly with the Theosophical view of death. 
Those of you who were here this afternoon will remember that 
when I was dealing with the sevenfold classification of man — the 
seven principles of man — I divided them into what are called the 
permanent and the impermanent. Theosophy teaches that the 
four that are called the lower principles are the impermanent part, 
and the three higher principles — the divine, spiritual, mental — are 
the permanent part which comes back and back to this earth-life. 
Now those four lower principles are the four conditions of con- 
sciousness, the four conditions of life, because you must remember 
that Theosophy teaches that everything is life. The Secret Doc- 
trine teaches us that every atom is full of life, that there is nothing 
but life, and that what is called "dead matter" is full of life and 
full of consciousness on its own plane, working under its own laws. 
Now " death," as it is generally called, only touches these four 
lower principles, these four grosser or transitory conditions of 
consciousness. And death is simply the withdrawal from the 
without to the within of that consciousness which is the pivot and 
the focus upon which the whole point we call man is built. -Mind 
is enveloped, so to say, that is, this mental portion of man that is 
divine is enveloped with these four lower principles, enveloped 
with the kama y or passional, or desire elements, enveloped with 
prana or the life principle, enveloped with the astral body, 
which is the finer reflection of our physical body and is more finely 
developed than our physical body. Now, death is simply the 
withdrawal from the outside portions, the grossly physical, to the 
inner plane of what we call life. Life, instead of being differen- 
tiated in the usual way in the physical body, instead of remaining 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 65 

outside, instead of being distributed throughout all the principles, 
withdraws itself to act for a while under certain other conditions 
of consciousness. 

We will divide them again into the objective and the subjective. 
The first division that takes place is when life steps back from the 
grossly material into the astral body and the first differentiation 
takes place. To the ordinary Western world that is death. It 
means less to our Theosophical friends. It means less to us who 
are only living on the physical plane of that one where touch, 
taste, seeing, handling, hearing was what we were made up of 
through life. But a person is alive just as much without that as 
with it, just as much as he was five minutes before, only he is on 
another plane. The reason we feel the loss is simply and solely 
because we do not understand how to throw our consciousness 
into that more subtile, subjective condition of consciousness at the 
back of the material one. The next condition of disincarnation, 
the next withdrawal that takes place, is the disincarnation of the 
astral body. It is what is called in the bible, the second death. 
The prana or life is all withdrawn. The third condition of death 
is when disincarnation takes place in the body of desires or 
emotions, when a person's sensations, emotions, wishes, desires 
are for the time being in a condition so subjective that they are 
not any longer passionally energetic on the material plane. Then 
what is called the spirit, its vehicle Buddhi, and the soul pass on 
into its own condition of rest. It has never lost its own conscious- 
ness; the vivid consciousness which it has then depends entirely 
upon the way its earth-life has been led. Now the place to which 
this pure triad goes for a certain time is called Devachan, which 
stands in the same position with regard to us in earth-life, as what 
is termed Heaven does to Christians in their teachings. Devachan 
means a place of angels, and there it is that the higher ego passes 
on to rest after earth-life, to gather into itself all experiences 
through which it has passed in its earth-life, because it is not 
dead. The experience it has passed through, it has been gathering 
into itself and assimilating before it returns once again into this 
earth-life to garner up for itself future knowledge and future 
experience. 

Now look at it from the point of view of the West. When a 
person has once passed out of the physical body, he is to us to all 
intents and purposes dead. But you must remember, friends, that 
this is only the view of the West. The other is the view of the 
East. And when you turn to the physical features of death, you 
must remember that out of the whole of the peoples of this world 
the only people who dread death, who fear death, are those people 
who do not understand the subjective life, those people to whom 
the Eastern teachings are a sealed book. You do not find many 
persons in the East who mind death. The poorest coolie out there 
will lie down and die easily, every man and woman there passes 
out of this earth-life in a perfect condition of calmness and confi- 
dence. Why? Because they have made the subjective life a 
reality; because to them this material life is not everything; to 
them they have a thing of study, they have a thing of history, 



66 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

they have a law of philosophy regarding that subjective condition 
which is called death. They have those who have tested it in their 
own knowledge and in their own consciousness; they have now 
living amongst them people to whom the passing from conditions 
of consciousness is a noble and a practiced thing. And once put 
yourself outside of this body, once that you can have any knowl- 
edge and sensations apart from this body, the whole fear of death 
will have passed away. Where is the people in the world in which 
there is so much fear of death as in the Christian peoples? You 
can take the Eastern peoples right through, and you will find their 
attitude towards death is very different. Why ? You must re- 
member, as I said before, there is all this subjective knowledge, 
there is the whole philosophy and a whole series of experiments 
with regard to this. And now in the West we are coming into 
touch with this subjective philosophy from a different standpoint 
altogether, and a good many Western scientists are helping us 
with regard to it. There is a very good book written by a Ger- 
man, Dr. Carl Du Prel. He has gathered together under the head- 
ing of The Philosophy of Mysticism a very great many facts with 
regard to the abnormal consciousness, the subjective conscious- 
ness, and he proves the mind as being apart from matter. The 
moment you have proved to yourselves, be it in ever so small a 
way, that you can have one spark of consciousness, one spark of 
your mind act apart from your body, the secret of death is solved 
for you. Therefore it is worth your while, men arid women in the 
West, it is worth your while if you want to pass that portal with 
free security and knowledge, it is worth your while to throw your 
'time and a little thought into the study of the subjective condi- 
tions of life. It will repay you in the end ; because there must 
come that time when we do cross the bridge. Now Du Prel, in his 
Philosophy of Mysticism, has gathered together all these abnormal 
states of consciousness in which he proves that the mind can act 
apart from the body. Not only does Du Prel do it, but you can 
turn to the whole of your scientific scholars who have proved it by 
a series of investigations in hypnotism, and so on. Then if you 
choos*e to turn to the East, and if you will study those old books 
in which they have put forward all that has been gathered together 
with regard to this very study of which we here know so little, you 
will find there is a whole philosophy, nay, more, a whole knowl- 
edge proved over and over and founded upon experimental facts 
over and over as carefully as any Western scientist can do his 
work. There is an authority in England, a man who is very well 
known, Mr. Edward Carpenter ; his book is by no means a philo- 
sophical treatise, but it is very full of a certain kind of facts which 
he himself gathered together in India and put together in a very 
light and pleasant book. The title of the book is From Adam's 
Peak to Elephanta. He went out with an object to the holy land of 
India, and puts forward the value to him of the ideas given by an 
Eastern teacher he met there. That teacher proved to him that by 
a certain process mind and thought can be trained to act entirely 
apart from matter, and that mind and thought can be brought 
under our control ; and when I say under our control I mean that 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 6j 

eternal ego, that divine ego, which stands at the back of the lower 
mind ; I am speaking of that higher mind of which our brother, 
Professor Chakravarti, spoke this afternoon ; proving that within 
us is a permanent brain that is not lost in death, and that it is 
which goes from one life to another, bringing with it its experi- 
ence. 

Now you must remember that when you once look at life and 
death thus, they are but different conditions of consciousness in 
which we ourselves live and may learn and function. It is worth 
while to take a little time to study it. You must remember this, 
friends, and take a little time to study it and think about it; you 
cannot learn all this in a few moments; you cannot study the sub- 
jective conditions of consciousness in a few hours; if you think it is 
worth while to know something about that life to which you must 
pass, in which all must live in the future, you must withdraw some 
of your energy from the material plane; you cannot have the same 
amount of energy working in two planes at once. In a short time 
you may know nothing about death, though you must go to meet 
it. Faith may be a very beautiful thing, friends, it may be a very 
poetical thing, but when you stand face to face with death, knowl- 
edge is a great deal better. And we are short-sighted out here in 
the West in the sufficiency we are building up here. Here you are 
in one of the leading cities of America, nay, in one of the leading 
cities of the world, and the whole of your energy and the whole of 
your thought, your wishes, desires are thrown out into material 
building and in the material working of different sorts. If you 
should desire ever to sit down and think about that future life into 
which we must all pass, you should begin. Now, in the East it is 
made such a careful study that, as I said before, you may know 
how to pass out of this life with a knowledge of what you are 
going into, of what is going to happen in all these conditions in 
yourselves. 

As we go out of this earth-life, so shall that lower material part 
of mankind also, and we will take it up with its causes and use 
them again, work up again, work out again the same faults with 
which we go out of this life. The lower part of our nature, all 
our faults, all our characteristics, all that we have not perceived 
and got rid of in this earth-life now, all that remains waits for us 
in essence until the ego returns again from its resting in heaven. 
You have been told that, by the law of cause and effect, we have 
to work out for ourselves every effect which we have started. And 
considering that one-half of the causes were started in this world, 
in this world we must work them out. One-half the causes are 
started here bv our desires, by those material wishes, by material 
longings; all this garment of life into which we throw our energy, all 
that energy, belongs to our ego, and until we have transmuted it and 
turned it into the higher life, we must come back and back and 
take up that same garment again. Therefore, friends, even from 
a different point of view it is worth while to study a little about 
the subjective arrangement of death. It is a wearisome task to 
put on old clothes again life after life ; and every old fault we 
have had in this life, every weakness we do not conquer here, we 



68 



THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



come back and have to conquer again. Why ? Because outside 
of the portal we call death it remains waiting for us, the skeleton 
garment of ourselves, the skeleton garment of our wishes, of our 
desires, and all that we have been in this life. It is only the out- 
ward material garment that changes; it is only the outward 
matter that ever alters; and according to Theosophical teachings 
we bring this back, all that we have really impressed with our own 
individuality, our own faults, our own weaknesses. It is a part of 
ourselves, and until we have regenerated it and lifted it up and per- 
fected it, all the deaths in the world will not do away with it. 
That is the reason that in the life here the work is to be done. 
Death is a different condition of consciousness, and the work that 
was started in the consciousness of life is to be worked out also in 
the consciousness of life. Another quality of consciousness into 
which we pass then is Devachan, and our appreciation of it, our 
being able even to understand it, depends upon the way we have 
lived here ; the whole of our subjective condition as that passes 
out and as we live in it there, depends absolutely upon the way we 
live here. 

You must remember, friends, that in Theosophy there is no 
atonement; there is no one bearing your burdens for you. We 
have to pay our own bills and work out our own salvation through 
one life after another. (Applause.) And so it is that according to 
the Theosophical teaching of death, the responsibility of human 
life is enormously greater than it is in any Western teaching here. 
It means that we cannot get any sort of salvation that we do not 
gain ourselves. And now when I say, Go to ourselves, I do not 
mean the external plane ; I mean to withdraw into ourselves and 
try to live that eternal, divine life which is the real life-principle of 
us all. As Dr. Chakravarti told us to-day, when we have this ideal 
mind in us, if the whole of our energy is turned into this ideal 
mind, how can we give so much to material life. We are bound to 
make as careful a study of death, what we call death, the processes 
of death, as we do of life, and the whole of life would grow much 
purer, much grander, and much more noble if we would once take 
up the responsible position of understanding that every day and 
every hour we are paving our way to that subjective condition 
which we call death. Every hour and every day are telling upon 
us for this reason, that unless we put into action this higher mind, 
unless here in this earth-life we withdraw into that higher mind 
and make the higher mind active, when we go into death we can 
have no consciousness of it at all. I mean by that that a person 
who has put all his energy into the lower quaternary must pass out 
of death without reaping the influences in it as do those people who 
have made a study of the subjective consciousness here in the earth- 
life. We can only do this by our own will, by our own desires at 
the present moment, and by turning our attention to the study 
of it. 

Now, there is a simple little book which will give you more 
details upon this subject, written by Annie Besant and called 
Death and After. I refer you all to it to study, because it gives in 
the plainest way the whole Theosophical view with regard to the 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 69 

subjective conditions and the subjective entities. There is one view 
of death I must speak of before I stop. The whole of the subjective 
conditions of life are full of entities, beings working, acting on 
their own plane ; it is full of life ; nay, and as full of energy and 
as full of knowledge as we are in ours ; and we do not pass there 
into a condition of nonentity at all. We pass into a condition of 
entity there in which there are laws, in which there is life ; where 
are beings full of energy and full of life, working as you all are at 
the present moment ; that the laws of that condition are just as 
carefully worked out, just as carefully arranged and governed, and 
that the whole of these different conditions, or rather I am speak- 
ing just now of the subjective consciousness, have all the conditions 
in which we live, in which we may be entities, in which we may 
have intercourse with other entities ; and yet unless we have 
knowledge we are liable to make as many mistakes there, that is, 
in the earlier conditions of our progress through what we call 
death, as we should in this world. You must remember that just 
-outside of this earth-life all the people who pass out are not 
perfectly good. Do you suppose that this earth-life is not sur- 
rounded with all the souls of those men and of those women who 
have been so earth-bound in their moral natures that they cannot 
pass on to anything else ? There is a great mass of evil spirits just 
as there is a great mass of good, and we are bound to meet all 
these different entities at some time or another, and that is why I 
say that knowledge of subjective conditions and subjective life, as 
it has been put forward and studied in those Eastern literatures, is 
a thing that the public is sorely in need of at the present moment. 
Now, one more word and my time will be up ; that is, one from 
the Theosophical standpoint and from the technical standpoint. 
There is one more point of view from which to look at it, and that 
is from the emotional standpoint. There is no person amongst us 
who does not dread the moment when he will feel that those who 
are nearest and dearest to him have to pass out of this earth-life. 
And whether you study it for your own knowledge only, whether 
you study it simply for the sake of what you want to know for 
yourselves, you may at least study it from the point of view of what 
you want to know about those whom you love ; because not all the 
love in the world, not all the tenderness in the world, not all the 
brotherly feeling in the world, can take any one of us across that 
portal with our nearest and our dearest. Every soul has to walk 
alone across that portal, and what we can do to help them is by 
telling them where they can find these teachings, where they can 
find that comfort which alone can help them when they come to 
change conditions ; because true Theosophists do not believe in 
death at all. From a Theosophical point of view it is no longer 
saying good-bye to those who are near and dear to us who pass 
through the portal of death ; it is not a parting with them or a going 
of them out into the unknown, because we have the road shown to 
us by which we may know, and those we love may know it too. 
We know what road they are going, where they are going, and 
what their condition is to be. And if you only, as I said before, 
study it for yourselves, at any rate you may look at it from the 



70 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

point of view of knowing something of those you love, desiring to 
know where they are, in what conditions they are, under what 
change they have come, how they are graded. Surely that must be 
a comfort, this knowledge about every human soul, and it must be 
learned some time or another. We know perfectly well that 
although that body may be lying in front of us, that that person 
who a few moments ago was full of life, though that person seems 
dead, we Theosophists know he is not dead, but still alive, and that 
to them and to us, while there is a division between us apparently,, 
we know that between us and them there is no division at all, that 
it is only a different condition of molecular life. Friends, there is 
comfort in it, and that comfort we are feeling ourselves with regard 
to this, that comfort is what we want to hand on to all the rest of 
the Western world ; because that is the great one reality of life we 
have to face, and it is only in this Eastern teaching that you will 
find that knowledge and that truth about the condition called 
death. (Applause.) 



UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD A FACT IN NATURE. 



WILLIAM Q. JUDGE. 



I have been requested to speak on the subject of Universal 
Brotherhood as a fact in nature; not as a theory, not as a Utopian 
dream which can never be realized; not as a fact in society, not 
as a fact in government, but as a fact in nature. That is, that 
Universal Brotherhood is an actual thing, whether it is recognized 
or whether it is not. Christian priests have claimed for some 
years, without rieht, that Christianity introduced the idea of Uni- 
versal Brotherhood. The reason the claim was made, I suppose, 
was because those who made it did not know that other religions 
at other times had the same doctrine. It is found in the Buddhist 
scriptures, it is found in the Chinese books, it is found in the 
Parsee books, it is found everywhere in the history of the world, 
long before the first year of the Christian Era began. So it is not 
a special idea from the Christian Scriptures. Every nation, then,, 
every civilization has brought forward this doctrine, and the facts 
of history show us that, more than at any other time, the last 
eighteen hundred years have seen this doctrine violated in society,, 
in government, and in nations. So that at last men have come to 
say, " Universal Brotherhood is very beautiful; it is something 
that we all desire, but it is impossible to realize." With one word 
they declare the noble doctrine, and with the other they deny the 
possibility of its ever being realized. 

Why is this the case ? Why is it that although Christianity 
and other religions have brought forward this doctrine, it has been 
violated ? We cannot deny that it has been. The history of even 
the last few years proves it. The history of the last forty years in 
America, without going any farther back, proves that this doctrine 
has been violated in the West. How could it have been a doctrine 
that the Americans believed in when they had slavery in their 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 7 1 

midst ? How could it have been believed in by the French when 
they stretched out their hand and demanded of Siam, a weak and 
powerless nation, that it must give up to them its own property ? 
How could it have been believed in by the Germans and French 
when they constructed engines of war and went into battle and 
destroyed each other by the thousand ? Does not the American 
War of the Rebellion and the vast amount of treasure wasted and 
the thousands slain in that civil war prove conclusively that Uni- 
versal Brotherhood has not been practiced ? It has been professed 
but not practiced. Now, go further back, go back in the history 
of the nations in Europe, without going to any other country, and 
what do you find? Do you not find sectarian prejudice? Their 
view of Universal Brotherhood has for years prevented the progress 
of science. Is it not true that only since science became material- 
ized — a most remarkable thing, but it is true — I insist that since 
then only science has made progress. If Universal Brotherhood 
had been a belief of this nation, then we would not have 
had the burning of witches in America; nor in other countries 
would we have had the burning of Catholics by Protestants, nor the 
burning of Protestants by Catholics; we would not have had the 
persecutions that have stained the pages of history; and yet we 
have always claimed that we have had Universal Brotherhood. We 
have had the theory but not the practice. Now, then, has there 
not been something wanting? It is a beautiful doctrine. It is the 
only doctrine of the Theosophical Society, the only thing that any 
man is asked by us to subscribe to. What, then, is the matter with 
it ? Why so many men who say that it is beautiful, but it is impos- 
sible, simply impossible ? There are even some branches of the 
Christian church which say, "There is Jesus; why, the altruistic, 
noble teachings of Christ are beautiful; but no State could live 
three months under such doctrine." The reason that it has not 
prevailed in practice is that it has been denied in the heart. 

The Theosophist who knows anything about life insists that 
Universal Brotherhood is not a mere theory. It is a fact, a living 
ever present fact, from which no nation can hope to escape ; no 
man can escape from it, and every man who violates it violates a 
law, violates the greatest law of nature, which will react upon him 
and make him suffer. And that is why we have had suffering ; that 
is why you have in Chicago, in London, in New York, in Berlin, in 
all the great cities of the world, masses of people who are claiming 
with violence what they call their rights and saying they must have 
them, and that another class is oppressing them ; and danger 
lurks in every corner because men are insisting on Universal Broth- 
erhood. This noble doctrine has already become a danger. The 
reason of all these things is that men have denied the fact. Now, 
we propose to show you, if we can, that it is a fact. 

If you will notice you will find that when it rains over a certain 
area vast numbers of men are affected similarly. The rain has to 
fall on the fields in order that the harvest may grow, so that after- 
wards it may be gathered, and all the farmers are affected together 
by the rain. If you examine society you will find that at the same 
hour every day almost all the people are doing exactly the same 



72 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

thing. At a certain hour in the morning thousands of your citi- 
zens are going down that railway or rush all together to catch the 
train, and at another few moments afterwards they are rushing out 
of the train to get to business, all doing the same thing, one com- 
mon thought inspiring them. That is one of the proofs — a small 
one — in social and business life that they are affected together, 
they are all united. Then in the evening they will come home at 
the same hour, and if you could see, at the same hour you would 
see them all eating together and digesting together, and then later 
on they are all lying down together at the same hour. Are they not 
united even in their social life? Brothers even in that ? And what 
do we see here in business ? Lately I have felt it ; every man has 
felt it, and many women; doubtless all have felt it ; lately we have 
had a financial crisis, perhaps have it yet, in which dollars have 
been scarce, during which men have discovered that there are only 
just so many dollars and half dollars to each person in the country, 
and we have altogether been suffering from that panic all over this 
vast country. Suffering, why ? Because commercially we are united 
and cannot get out of it. China even is affected by it, and Japan. 
India, they say, was the cause of it. Some men say the reason 
for this panic is that India put the price of rupees down, and we 
who produce so much silver began to feel it. I do not know that 
that is the reason. But I think there is another cause. I think the 
American nation is so fond of luxury, so fond of fine clothes, so 
fond of having a heap of money, that it has gone too far and there 
was bound to come a reaction, because it is all united together with 
the whole world, and when it spread itself out too far the slightest 
touch broke the fabric. That is the reason, and that is another 
proof of Universal Brotherhood. We are all united, not only with 
each other here, but with the entire world. 

Now, then, go further still materially and you find that all men 
arealike. We have the same sort of bodies, a little different per- 
haps in height, weight, and extension, but as human beings we are 
all alike, all the same color in one country, all the same shape in 
any country, so that as mere bodies of flesh they are united, they 
are the same. We know every man and woman has exuding from 
him or her what is called perspiration. The doctors will tell you 
there is a finer perspiration you cannot see, the invisible perspira- 
tion which goes out a short distance around about us ; we know it 
comes out from every person, and the emanations of each person 
are affecting every other person, being interchanged always. All 
those in this room are being affected by these emanations and also 
by the ideas of each other, and the ideas of the speakers speaking 
to you. So it is in every direction; wherever you go, wherever you 
look, we are united ; in whatever plane, the plane of mind*as well 
as the plane of the body ; the plane of the emotions, of the spirit, 
what not, we are all united, and it is a fact from which we cannot 
escape. Now, then, further : science is beginning to admit what 
the old Theosophists have always said, that there is going on every 
minute in every person a death, a dissolution, a disappearance. It 
used to be taught and thought in the West that we could see mat- 
It is admitted to-day by your 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 73 

best scientific men in every part of Western civilization that you do 
not see matter at all ; it is only the phenomena of matter we see ; 
and it is my senses which enables me to perceive these phenomena. 
It is not matter at all, and so we do not see matter. Now admitting 
that, they go further and say there is a constant change in matter 
so-called ; that is, this table is in motion. This is not a purely 
Theosophical theory. Go to any doctor of Physics and he will 
admit to you as I have stated it. This table is in motion ; every 
molecule is separate from every other, and there is space between 
them, and they are moving. So it is with every man , he is made 
of atoms and they are in motion. Then how is it we remain the 
same size and weight nearly always from the moment of maturity 
until death ? We eat tons of meat and vegetables but remain the 
same. It is not because of the things you have eaten. In addition 
to that the atoms are alive, constantly moving, coming and going 
from one person to another ; and this is the modern doctrine 
to-day as well as it was the doctrine of ancient India. They call it 
the momentary dissolution of atoms ; that is to say, to put it in 
another way, I am losing, all of you in this room are losing, a 
certain number of atoms, but they are being replaced by other 
atoms. Now, where do these other atoms come from ? Do 
they not come from the people in this room ? These atoms help 
to rebuild your body as well as does the food you eat. And 
we are exuding atoms from our minds, and we are receiving 
into ourselves the atoms other men have used. For, remember, 
science teaches you, and Theosophy has always insisted, that matter 
is invisible before it is turned into this combination of the life cycle, 
which makes it visible, makes it tangible to us. So these atoms 
leave us in a stream and rush into other people. And there- 
fore the atoms of good men go into bad men, the atoms impressed 
by bad men go into good men, and vice versa. In that way as well 
as others we are affecting everybody in this world ; and the people 
in Chicago who are living mean, selfish lives are impressing 
these invisible atoms with mean and selfish characters, and these 
mean and selfish atoms will be distributed by other men, and by 
you again to your and their detriment. That is another phase of 
Universal Brotherhood. It teaches us to be careful to see that we 
use and keep the atoms in our charge in such a condition that they 
shall benefit others to whom they shall go. (Applause.) 

There is another view of Universal Brotherhood, and I don't 
pretend to exhaust the argument on this point, for I have not the 
time nor force to state all that is put forward in the Theosophical 
books and literature and thought. That is, that there is yi this 
world in actual Universal Brotherhood of men and women, of souls, a 
brotherhood of beings who practice Universal Brotherhood by 
always trying to influence the souls of men for their good. I 
bring to you the message of these men ; I bring to you the words 
of that brotherhood. Why will you longer call yourselves miser- 
able men and women who are willing to go to a Heaven where you 
will do nothing? Do you not like to be gods ? Do you not want 
to be gods? I hear some men say, " What, a god ! Impossible ! " 
Perhaps they do not like the responsibility. Why, when you get 



74 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

to that position you will understand the responsibility. This 
actual Brotherhood of living men says, Why, men of the West, why 
will you so long refuse to believe you are gods ? We are your 
brothers and we are gods with you. Be then as gods ! Believe 
that you are gods, and then, after experience and attainment, you 
will have a place consciously in the great Brotherhood which 
governs the entire world, but cannot go against the law. This 
great Brotherhood of living men, living souls, would, if they 
could, alter the face of civilization ; they would, if they could, 
come down and make saints of every one of you ; but evolution is 
the law and they cannot violate it ; they must wait for you. And 
why will you so long be satisfied to believe that you are born in 
original sin and cannot escape? I do not believe in any such 
doctrine as that. I do not believe I was born in original sin. I 
believe that I am pretty bad, but that potentially I am a god, and 
I propose to take the inheritance if it is possible. For what 
purpose ? So that I may help all the rest to do the same thing, for 
that is the law of Universal Brotherhood; and the Theosophical 
Society wishes to enforce it on the West, to make it see this, great 
truth, that we are as gods, and are only prevented from being so 
in fact by our own insanity, ignorance, and fear to take the 
position. 

So, then, we insist that Universal Brotherhood is a fact in 
nature. It is a fact for the lowest part of nature ; for the animal 
kingdom, for the vegetable kingdom, and the mineral kingdom. We 
are all atoms, obeying the law together. Our denying it does not 
disprove it. It simply puts off the day of reward and keeps us 
miserable, poor, and selfish. Why, just think of it ! if all in 
Chicago, in the United States, would act as Jesus has said, as 
Buddha has said, as Confucius said, as all the great ethical teachers 
of the world have said, " Do unto others as you would have them 
do unto you," would there be any necessity for legal measures and 
policemen with clubs in this park as you had them the other day ? 
(Applause.) No, I think there would be no necessity, and that is 
what one of this great Brotherhood has said. He said all the 
troubles of the world would disappear in a moment if men would 
only do one-quarter of what they could and what they ought. It 
is not God who is to damn you to death, to misery. It is yourself. 
And the Theosophical Society desires above all things, not that 
you should understand spiritualism, not that wonderful occult 
works should be performed, but to understand the constitution of 
matter and of Life as they are, which we can never understand but 
by practicing right ethics. Live with each other as brothers ; for 
the misery and the trouble of the world are of more importance 
than all the scientific progress that may be imagined. Tconclude 
by calling upon you by all that humanity holds dear to remember 
what I say, and whether Christians, Atheists, Jews, Pagans, 
Heathen, or Theosophists, try to practice Universal Brotherhood, 
which is the universal duty of all men. 






REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 75 

KARMA THE LAW OF CAUSATION, OF JUSTICE AND 
THE ADJUSTMENT OF EFFECTS. 



ANNIE BESANT. 



In arranging the programme for this Congress of the Theo- 
sophical Society, a very definite view of the presentment of the 
subject was in the mind of those who drew it up. To-day we have 
been striving to lay clearly and definitely before you, first, the 
origin of the movement in that great spiritual life to which your 
attention was drawn this morning ; then to justify the claim of 
Theosophy to be the ancient wisdom religion, by an historical 
review of the past, showing you how under every creed the same 
truths were found. From that we have passed onward to the great 
fundamental teachings, philosophical and psychological, which 
form the very basis of our thought. And then to-morrow, having 
dealt to-day with this theoretical side, we are going to try to work 
the theory out in its practical relations of life, so that we may 
catch at least some outline of the way in which we are trying to 
work in and affect the world. 

It is my duty, in closing this first great section of our work, to 
place before you one of the most difficult, but at the same time one 
of the most fundamental, of our doctrines. That doctrine of 
Karma ; the law of causes, as it is called, the law of justice, the 
law of adjustment of effects ; difficult because so complicated, 
difficult because so far-reaching ; and in the attempt that I must 
make to lay it before you, I do not for one moment pretend that I 
shall answer every question that may arise in your minds, nor give 
you full and perfect explanation of the teaching. Full explanation 
does not come by listening to the speech of another. It comes by 
patient and resolute study carried on by the individual for himself. 
Only a superficial knowledge can be gained from the lips of 
another ; real knowledge comes by personal effort and personal 
thought, and there is a danger that in this time of hurry, in this 
time of continual change and constant excitement, there is a danger 
that men shall grow intellectually lazy, that their minds shall lose 
their own grip of a subject, that they shall rely on the thinkings of 
others instead of upon their own thought, and so lose man's most 
precious heritage, the power to study and to understand the truth, 
and the duty and responsibility of judgment and discrimination 
for one's self. 

Now Karma is simply a Sanscrit word meaning action, and it is 
used in our philosophy to cover all action of every description in 
the Kosmos and in Man ; action as cause, action as effect, so that 
it becomes the general expression of a sequence in Nature. The 
word is one which expresses continual and inviolable sequence, 
the unbroken chain of cause and of effect, each cause giving rise to 
an effect, which effect in turn becomes the cause of new effects, so 
that all thought, all life, all action, all these things, form a single 
chain in which every link depends on the link that precedes it, out 



j6 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

of which no link can drop, for law is inviolable, subject neither to 
breach nor change. And the reason why this is so is easy enough 
to grasp. What is the Universe in the widest extent of the phrase ? 
The Universe is but the form in which the divine thought ex- 
presses itself. It is but the manifested thought of the divine, but 
the necessary outcome of the divine nature ; and inasmuch as the 
divine thought is primary and the form in which it expresses itself 
is secondary, therefore form must follow thought, and be the inev- 
itable expression of the creative thought that originates divine 
ideation, which is the first manifestation of deity. The universe 
and everything in it is but the gradual expression in form of the 
ideation that has preceded. Here is the sphere of causes. Here 
every thing has its root. Out of the divine thought grow all pos- 
sibilities of action, and so thought becomes the primary study, and 
Karma is but thought worked out in a manifested universe. You 
have the concrete expression of this idea, as, in truth, of all great 
philosophical ideas, in those Eastern scriptures to which so many 
references have been made to-day. Turn to the Vishnu Purana. 
You will find there one of the simplest and most sublime exposi- 
tions of that which is the very essence of created activity. Over 
and over again the phrase comes, preceding each different form of 
manifested activity, " Brahma meditated, and Creation came 
forth." 

It is from the meditation of the divine that all form proceeds, 
and so in its measure from human thought, from human medita- 
tion, all action springs, and every manifested thought is precipi- 
tated as action. It is in the realm of thought that, as Dante phrased 
it, " In that realm where power and will are one," it is there, 
whether in the divine, in the Kosmos, or the divine in Man, that we 
must look for the root of action and the cause of all effect. Where 
the will has operated, the action is inevitable. That is Karma in a 
phrase. The will is the energizing force, the action is the mere 
crystallization of the will ; and so, when this will has operated, 
there come forth into the world of manifestation acts which we 
perform, social systems amid which we live, physical environment 
that limits our energy, the very mould in which our life is cast. 

When one of the great teachers of wisdom desired to make con- 
crete and practical for the Western world the somewhat metaphys- 
ical and subtle teaching that you may find on this subject in East- 
ern books, he took as an example the way in which men, throwing 
their will and their thought out of themselves, create images that 
become potent for good or for evil in the world of effects. He 
taught how the motive in man conditioned the result of the mental 
activity of man in his willing, impressed, as it were, the nature of 
the causation on that which he thought and desired ; so that, as 
the man thinks — to use the very phrase of the Masters — he is peo- 
pling his current in space with the offspring of his own thoughts, 
desires, and emotions. Every man is thus employed day by day, 
year by year, and this peopling of the current in space — once more 
to take up the phrases I am quoting — " This," he says, " is what the 
Hindu calls Karma.'' Knowing what the phrase means, it remains 
to see how it will affect our view of life. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 77 

We have been making for ourselves by the creative force 
of our will, certain causes sent out from the realm of mind 
into the realm of matter ; and it is in the realm of matter 
that are to be found the acts which from day to day we 
commit. Thought has made the action inevitable. The 
thought-form must work out in the material world, so that day by 
day we are living in the results that we have created, and are sur- 
rounded from the cradle to the grave by these forms that are the 
offspring of our own mind. Hence we are born into the world time 
after time with the general mold, as it were, of our life cast in the 
preceding incarnations. We, and no one else, are responsible for 
the tendencies that we bring in. We, and no one else, are responsible 
for the environment which surrounds us, to work out year after 
year the lessons of our previous thinking, fettered by the fetters 
that our own hands have forged, hindered by obstacles that our 
own hands have piled. But then, it may be said, if that be so, are 
you not teaching a fatalism that will be destructive of human effort ? 
Are you not proclaiming a destiny that will make all energy im- 
possible, all spontaneous action removed from the possibility of 
Man ? , No, for the will that created yesterday those causes which 
to-day are worked out in the very midst of the environment it has 
created and must enter, is the same creative potency making new 
causes for the morrow that shall workout in changed environment, 
in altered conditions, improving or retrograding as life proceeds. 
It is true that we have to live in that which we have made for our 
dwelling, but it is also true that, working from within those limit- 
ations we have created, we can break one by one the fetters we 
have forged, and step out again free men into the world which we 
have made for ourselves. 

For the will, which is the causer, remains ever with us, and just 
as we deal with the dead act into which we are compelled to enter, 
so shall be the living outcome of that action. The husk shall fall 
away and the life step forth. Let me take as a very simple illus- 
tration the way in which Karma, working, places us in an environ- 
ment inevitably, but enables us then by dealing with that environ- 
ment with knowledge to change that which shall grow out from it 
in the future. Let us say that by past folly, past ignorance, past 
selfishness, we havemade for ourselves to-day an environment of sor- 
row from which we cannot escape. Some crushing blow from the 
hand of fate we call it in our ignorance, unknowing that the hand 
of fate to-day is our own hand of yesterday which has forged the 
weapon by which we are pierced. The blow falls, we feel the 
agony , shrinking from that anguish, how shall we face it, how 
shall we bear it ? What shall be its outcome in the life that lies in 
front? The outcome may be one of two. When the blow falls 
we may rise against it with a sense of angry injustice. "I have 
not deserved this agony ; I have done nothing that I should suffer 
this pain. I am crushed under the wheels of a remorseless destiny, 
and I heartily rebel against the injustice that has struck me." 
Such may be the aspect of the thinker blinded in matter, unknow- 
ing his own past on this plane, not able, as it were, to communicate 
to the waking consciousness that which is the explanation of the 



78 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

pain. What is the result ? That out of this evil seed of the Past, 
met in an ignorant and rebellious spirit, fresh cause for sorrow is 
sown for the days to come. Fresh harvest of pain must be reaped 
with the sickle of experience. Pain, ever-renewing pain, sorrow, 
ever-renewing sorrow, an iron circle, as it were, surrounding us ; a 
circle of fire from which we cannot escape. 

But word has come to Man enlightening the darkness that 
surrounded him. He is given to understand he has a power that he 
has wielded in the past and possesses to-day. Wisdom has come 
as a light on his path, and in the midst of the agony wrought by 
the past evil he understands himself, he understands the environ- 
ment he has made. Bravely, patiently, sternly, he faces the result 
of his own fall, with no cry of anger against destiny, with no 
thought of rebellion against the pain which is to teach him wis- 
dom, recognizing in the harvest the seed of his own sowing. Too 
strong to cry beneath the pain — a pain which his own folly has 
made, he walks out to meet it, takes his burden on his own shoulder 
— nay, welcomes the agony which means knowledge and the pain 
by which alone wisdom can be garnered. 

" I have sinned," he says ; " rightly do I suffer. I have blun- 
dered ; justly does the penalty of the disregard of law fall on my 
own head. Shall I complain that the laws of a universe are not 
altered for my escaping ? Shall I ask that the divine nature may be 
changed ; that I who have tried to violate may escape the swing of 
the law against which I have flung myself ? Rather let me bear 
my pain. Rather let the evil that I have done work itself out to 
the uttermost expiation. It will teach me the reality of life. It 
will tell me something of the divine nature. I have sinned ; I am 
willing to suffer, and I ask not to escape the harvest the seed of 
which I sow with my own hands." 

And so out of knowledge grows strength, so out of understand- 
ing grows peace ; for all the pain, the real pain of life, grows not 
out of that which comes to us from without, but from the inner 
rebellion that is not able to accept, to understand what Karma 
means ; to understand it as the expression of the divine nature, to 
realize that all that is worthy in life is to become one with the 
divine law, united with the divine will, and you will welcome pain 
which offers the possibility of union, and you will rejoice in the 
very fires of your agony, for they shall purify you and give you 
gold and melt away the dross. 

Thus is Karma the law of readjustment. I have spoken of the 
law of the Kosmos as the expression of the divine will. But we 
have human wills differentiated from the divine. One with it in es- 
sence, opposed to it for the while in practice. Why this possibility 
of conflict in a universe of law? Why should it be that in a 
Kosmos which is to be the expression of the divine thought there 
should be the possibility of any will in conflict with the one will, 
any volition of Man that can hold its own against the Supreme 
volition ? It is because in the evolution of soul there is to 
be something higher than mere automatic obedience to a law 
compulsorily impressed upon matter ; because, the universe exist- 
ing for the evolution of the soul, that soul is to become in very 






REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 79 

truth divine, self-consciously divine, at the close of its experi- 
ence, as it is unconsciously divine at its beginning. But if there is 
to be human will at all, that must include the possibility of rebel- 
lion. If the will can say, " I will obey," it must be able also to say, 
" I will not obey, I will go my own way, carry out my own desire." 
And in order that the universe may be not a monotone but a har- 
monious chord, not the one note ringing ever, but one key-note with 
countless undertones giving richness and melody and all possi- 
bility of infinite harmony and beauty ; so that while the key-note is 
divine the harmonies of the human wills which gradually are 
trained into unity, and the work of the universe, are the evolution 
of the harmony, the conscious and willing harmony with this su- 
preme will. 

Therefore it is that as the great will sweeps on, the lesser wills 
that set themselves against it cause friction. Therefore pain and 
misery. And therefore it is that Karma, the expression of that 
law, works itself out so long as there is evil, by suffering, for only 
as friction disappears does harmony become possible, and it is the 
great law of readjustment that exhausts the friction that the 
human will has made. 

And this Karma lying behind us in our immemorial past cannot 
express itself properly in the limits of one brief human life ; and 
so, going deeper into the subject, you will find divisions and sub- 
divisions whereby we express the Karma that can be worked out 
in the one life for which the apparatus, so to speak, is here ready, 
while there is other Karma reserved, as it were, lying behind us, 
which in due time will come to the ripening and work itself out 
also in the act. Not only is this complication one of the difficul- 
ties of the understanding of the detailed workings, but also we 
have to recognize the working of Karma, not only individual but 
also national, but also racial, but also human, for all humaniiy is 
one. All these threads of Karma work in the one mighty 
strand, and those who would understand it in its detail, those who 
would understand its full bearing on human life, must take into 
consideration all these different states and the fashion of their in- 
tertwining ; and there comes in the abstruseness that I spoke of, 
which seems to make the subject less intelligible as one really is 
beginning to understand ; and we learn, as we thus study, that the 
Karma of one cannot be separated from the Karma of others ; that 
you and I, one nation and another, one race and another, that 
we are all fundamentally one and have a common Karma that 
must work itself out in our common life ; so that here, at the close 
of the evening as at the beginning of the morning, we come back 
to the fundamental unity that makes all separation between us 
impossible, and then you begin to understand what is meant 
when it is said of the guardians of our race, of those who have 
achieved, that it is their strong hands that hold back the Karma 
of the world, as the Kar??ia is one and indivisible. Just in pro- 
portion as we destroy separateness, do we begin to bear the one 
Karma and share that one Karma of humanity. It is the reward 
of self-abnegation that we become the common bearers for the 
race, not by a vicarious offering but by the unity of our life 



80 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

within, for here there is no difference recognized, no " mine " and 
" thine " to the expression. That has passed away in the merging 
into the common life, and if you and I, as we tread the path of 
life together, however obscure, however trivial, however petty it 
may seem to be day by day, if in the living of that life we learn to 
trample on the lower self, if in the living of that life we learn to 
think not of self but first of others, and then of all as one with our- 
selves, if our daily life is made a daily offering to mankind, if 
every opportunity be seized upon which may make us feel our 
union and make us unconscious of our separateness, then we have 
put our feet on the path which makes us one with humanity and 
gives us the glory of bearing the common burden and using our 
strength for the common good of Man. Nothing can separate us 
from Man but our own will. Nothing can make us separate from 
our brethren save our own desire, our own longing for the lesser 
self, and the final lesson of Karma is, there is no such thing as sep- 
arateness to the human soul. There is no such thing as Thee and 
as Me to those who are one in the supreme life ; and the only re- 
ward that Theosophy offers to its followers, the only prize that 
Theosophy holds out to those who accept it, is that by struggle 
they shall become one with Man by following self-sacrifice, that 
perfect sacrifice at last shall be their reward, that their fate shall 
be one with the fate of the world, their future one with the future 
of humanity, none outcast that is not one with them, none de- 
graded that is not in their heart, whose pain they do not answer 
to, whose agony they cannot feel. The vilest and the lowest, the 
most degraded and the foulest, they are ours by right of our com- 
mon divinity, and none shall come between us and them. That is 
the final triumph, that is the extreme goal. As was said in an 
ancient Chinese scripture, " Never will I accept individual salva- 
tion, never will I enter into final peace alone." As one, not as 
many, we will cross the threshold of the spiritual life ; as one, and 
not as separate, we will open that door and go in together. For it 
is not worth while to be saved unless everything that breathes is 
saved along with us ; and the one vow that is worth the taking, 
the one vow that every Saviour of Man perfects, age after age, is the 
vow which makes him the lowest in order that he may raise all, 
and makes him willing to be but as the very ground men walk on, 
in order that, by the force of the spirit within him, he may raise 
them to the highest and make them one with the divine. 
Adjourned until Saturday morning, at 10 a. m. 

SESSION OF SATURDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER l6TH, IO A. M. 

Mr. Judge — One or two persons have said since our sessions 
began that they noticed that other Congresses began either with 
the Lord's Prayer or with some religious Christian hymn, and 
ended with the doxology or some other religious function, and they 
wondered why the Theosophical Congresses were opened in a 
business manner and closed in the same way. What is the reason 
for this ? The reason is not very far to seek ; it is found in the 
words of Jesus ; and if we were in India we could give reasons from 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 8l 

their scriptures, but here the words of Jesus are quite enough. 
Jesus told the Pharisees, who existed in that time as they do now 
in ours, that they should not make prayers in the streets nor shout 
prayers, but to retire to their closets and pray to the Father who 
seeth in secret, and he would reward them openly. So we do not 
begin with prayer, nor end with the doxology. Every individual 
can pray himself or herself to the God who seeth in secret, and we 
prefer to follow the words of Jesus and not to make long prayers 
in the streets nor to be seen of men at our secret devotions, but go 
at once to our business, which is to endeavor to give men and 
women a philosophy of life so they will be able to pray sincerely 
to the Father who seeth in secret. 

Brother Claude F. Wright will now address you. 



THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN ITS ORGANIZED LIFE. 
ORGANIZATION, METHODS OF WORK, PROPAGANDA. 



CLAUDE F. WRIGHT. 



The special object of this paper is to lay before you a brief 
statement of the methods by which the Theosophical Society en- 
deavors to carry into effect its programme of labor for the meliora- 
tion of the world ; and to give some idea of the structure of the 
association, — of the movement in its organized life. 

In order that what is to follow may be perfectly comprehended, 
it will be well in opening to roughly outline the programme re- 
ferred to and which you have heard more fully elaborated by other 
speakers ; by so doing at the outset I shall avoid the necessity in 
the course of my remarks for constant reference to what properly 
lies outside the province of this essay. 

You are all aware that the first Object of the Society is the for- 
mation of a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, 
without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color. But it should 
be understood that the binding element in an ideal fraternity such 
as is here betokened must of necessity have its source in the spiritual 
side of things. No true student of man's nature would even dream 
of the possibility of permanently uniting individuals or nations 
with the tendrils of fellowship and good-will, save through the 
medium of a common philosophy sprung from belief in the divine 
possibilities of man, and having for its principal elements the ideal 
of human perfection and the sacrifice of the self to the good of 
others. It is Religion in its purity, released from priest-craft, 
dogma, or sect, that alone can produce in the heart of man desire 
for harmony and progression. The first Object of the Society was 
never intended to give birth to a socialistic or communistic sodality 
based upon laws of finance or necessity, or the visionary and 
unnatural concept of the equality of man : it essayed the breaking 
down of the walls of estrangement between sects, religions, and 
nations, being an endeavor to free the world from the degrading 
philosophy of self-interest and advance, and to help man to the 



82 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

practical realization of the god within him. The recognition of a 
spiritual philosophy as the root-nature of true Brotherhood and a 
desire to spread this idea in the world at large, certainly underlay 
the formulation of the Objects of the Society. This is evinced by 
the nature of its second and third objects : (a), the study of 
Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions, and sciences — which 
treat almost entirely of the spiritual nature of things ; and (b), the 
investigation of the psychical side of nature and of man. The 
name of the Society also — the Society of Theosophy, Divine 
Wisdom, or Knowledge concerning God, abundantly proves it. 

So that our programme of labor is to all intents and purposes 
the awakening in man of a desire for spiritual knowledge, and 
through that the uniting of all peoples by the holy bonds of divine 
love. To expedite this work, the true Founders — the Arahats 
dwelling beyond the Himalayas — have given to the Society infor- 
mation for the service of mankind, a spiritual philosophy and 
knowledge of things hidden from the world for ages, including an 
explanation of the origin of the world's religions. This has been 
called Theosophy The majority of the members of the Society 
are students and exponents of it, for in their belief it is the only 
system of knowledge that can afford a reasonable basis for Brother- 
hood. It unites all sciences, religions, and philosophies, is without 
dogmatic or sectarian possibility, and in particular is a common 
ground on which all the religions of the world can find standing 
room. And as the spreading of this philosophy has been proven 
by extended experiments to be the best method of interesting man 
in his long-neglected soul-nature and so help to the founding of a 
true Fraternit}? - , so the very great majority of the members labor to 
let the world know of it. It is, however, offered only as an explana- 
tion of life ; no one is compelled to accept it, for the unsectarian 
character of the Society must never be tampered with ; yet as for 
the aforesaid reasons its dissemination in the world is the work of 
almost the entire body of the Fellows, it cannot be omitted in the 
consideration of our programme of labor. 

So much, then, for the mission of the Society. We may now 
enquire into the methods by which it is endeavoring to carry out 
its work. 

Primarily, the object is of course not so much to increase the 
ranks of the movement as to spread these ideas of Brotherhood and 
the inherent divinity of man upon which that is based. This is 
accomplished largely by the spread of literature. Numerous 
magazines, books, brochures, pamphlets, tracts of all kinds are 
yearly issued by our members in every country on the globe and in 
almost every language ; written by the members of the Society, 
they are without exception of a kind calculated to spur men on to 
a study of religious philosophy. In the main they set forth the 
science of Theosophy or the arcane wisdom of the Orient, but a 
very large number are translations from the older Aryan literatures 
and the writings of the ancient Hindus and other Eastern peoples 
under the second Object of the Society, of which many a rare gem 
has through the efforts of our members been allowed to shed its 
rays among European and American nations. But before presenting 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 83 

a sketch of the general field of Theosophical literature let us pass 
to an examination of the actual mechanism of the Society itself. 
Second in importance to the spread of literature in flooding the 
world with the ideas and truths we have so much at heart, stands 
the enlarging of the Society, the establishment of Branches, and 
through them the sending of lecturers to districts so far untnlight- 
ened by Theosophy. This leads us to a consideration of the 
reason why a Society was formed. Some might say, even have 
said, that if all that was desired was a promulgation of Theosophy, 
a dissemination of spiritual ideas based upon scientific research, 
then a society was unnecessary ; all that was needed was the spread 
of literature of a kind sufficient to awaken interest in psychic and 
spiritual matters. That might have- answered all purposes in a 
more enlightened age, but in this era of mental, physical, and 
spiritual warfare the wisdom of the Founders perceived the value of 
organized work. And events have proved that wisdom. Notwith- 
standing the fact that the literature brought out by the members 
of the Society has done most toward permanently altering the 
minds of the people and turning them in the desired direction, yet 
,it may fairly be said that nine-tenths of the work of advancement 
has been done through the personal labor of the members ; for it 
is they who have excited an interest in the literature and spread a 
desire for its study by philosophical discourse and by lives of 
purity, devotion, and high endeavor. But without the organization 
they could have done but comparatively little ; the laborers in the 
field would have been scattered and unknown to one another, each 
working on his own lines and without assistance. With a properly 
constituted Society such as is ours, the workers accept the advice 
of the older members, drawn from their experience, as to the most 
approved methods of labor; missionaries and lecturers are sent 
where they are most needed, and according to their ability ; pecu- 
niary aid by individual donation is rendered possible ; members in 
any given city or centre are drawn together, and by mutual aid 
quadruple the effects of their efforts ; the distribution of literature 
becomes a comparatively easy task. 

Yet the Society is intended as a Brotherhood rather than merely 
an institution. Each member is strongly imbued with the desire to 
aid his fellow and to work for the furtherance of the Cause, and 
this it is which maintains it far more than its councils, fees, and 
dues. So also the association is as unfettered as possible. It is 
constructed on the lines of the Constitution of the United States, 
and every one in it is free to his own opinion on all matters, only 
restricted in this to the extent of his being expected to exercise the 
same tolerance toward the views of others on religious and like 
questions as he asks for his own. The actual framework of the 
Society is light, and can be examined without difficulty. It con- 
sists, in the first place, of what may be called the Society-at-large, 
with its President, Vice-President, Secretaries, and Treasurers ; 
this is international. It is then divided into Sections, perfectly 
autonomous, each having its own officers elected as the Branch 
determines. Each Branch is, therefore, a miniature copy of the 
General Society, and by the perfect system of self-government 



84 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

maintained throughout every division of the body, together with 
the principle of freedom of thought and speech existing among the 
members and habitually promulgated by them and by the officers, 
there is neither the possibility of nor tendency to dogmatism or 
sectarianism. And as the endeavor of each individual in the 
Society is, or should be, as far as possible to make the ideal of 
Universal Brotherhood a reality in his life and thus establish a 
perfect unity in the Branch to which he is attached ; and as, also, 
the Branches cooperate in establishing concord in the Section to 
which they belong, the Sections again working harmoniously and 
for the good of all ; so the whole Society is cemented with the 
bonds of sympathy, fraternity, and unity, working as one body 
through the unanimous desire of its members for progress, and 
inspired to a peaceful existence by the common labor of all, the 
aiding of mankind. 

In an age such as the present the growth of a Society organized 
on the lines just indicated is from every point of view astonishing. 
More marvellous yet is it when that growth has shown itself a rapid 
one. Yet the Society has increased almost at an accelerated rate 
from the date of its establishment until the present time. While 
the number of its members has not been published, yet an exami- 
nation of the increase in the chartered Branches issued from year 
to year will give a fair idea of its development. The following 
figures are taken from the last account published by the Head- 
quarters of the Society, January, 1893. 

Year . . 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 
Branches 1 2 2 4 n 27 51 93 104 121 136 158 179 206 241 279 310 
Branches \ * * ° 2 7 16 34 42 11 17 15 22 21 27 35 38 31 

Deducting thirty charters extinguished, the Branches existing 
on 27th December, 1892, numbered 280, geographically distributed 
in the following manner : 

In Europe : England 19 ; Scotland 1 ; Ireland 1 ; France 2 ; 
Austria 2 ; Sweden 1 ; Greece 1 ; Holland 1 ; Belgium 1 ; 
Russia 1. 

In America : United States 67 ; West Indies 2. 

In Asia : Bengal 36 ; Kattyawar 2 ; Madras 58 ; Ceylon 22 ; 
Behar 8 , N. W. P., Panjaub, and Oudh 26 ; Central Provinces 4 ; 
Bombay 9 ; Burmah 3 ; Japan 1 ; Philippine Islands 1. 

In Australasia 10. 

During the present year, however, many new charters have 
been issued in addition to these in the different Sections, and it is 
estimated that there are at present about 330 Branches on the 
Society's roll. 

The Society was founded at New York in November, 1875 ; its 
phenomenal growth can only be explained by accepting as true the 
statements of its true Founders — the Mahatmas — through their 
mouthpiece, H. P. Blavatsky, so far back as 1874, that "the world 
was ready." But as was said in the opening remarks of this 
address, a consideration of the size of the Society gives really but 
a very imperfect idea of the extent of its work. Persons constantly 
say that they are in sympathy with it and even laboring for it, but 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 85 

refrain from joining it on account of the prejudice of relatives or 
friends, or because their principle is not to connect themselves with 
any body or association whatever. It may without exaggeration 
be said that if all those who are in sympathy with the movement 
were to enter its ranks, the numbers of the Society would be trebled. 
An examination of the development of its literature will therefore 
perhaps give us a better idea — albeit a more abstract one — of its 
general effect upon the world of thought. 

During the first two years of its existence the literature of the 
Society may be said to have been nil; outside a few newspaper 
articles and pamphlets setting forth the objects and intent of the 
Society there was nothing published. In 1877 Madame Blavat- 
sky's Isis Unveiled was brought out in New York. From the issue 
of this extraordinary work, pronounced by all to have been the 
most remarkable production of its time, may fairly be said to date 
the rise of the copious stream of Theosophical literature that has 
since flowed through the world. The work, in two volumes em- 
bracing about 1,300 octavo pages in all, created a sensation at the 
time of its issue that can scarcely be said to have died out yet. It 
has run through no less than six editions at the present date. 
After 1877 and until the visit of Madame Blavatsky to India 
in 1879, scarcely anything was added of importance in the way 
of published matter; in the latter year was founded at Bombay 
the Theosophist, the first magazine issued in connection with the 
Society and now its official organ. The growing interest in the 
Society in India from this date induced many Hindus to 
bring out translations* into English from their own arcane 
literature, and not a few books and pamphlets of this nature 
thus found their way into Europe and America. The 
establishment of a Lodge of the Society in London in the pre- 
vious year formed a centre there and a vehicle for the transmis- 
sion of any works that might later be brought out. The address, 
" How Best to Become a Theosophist," appears to have been the 
first pamphlet issued in England of a Theosophical character. 
This was published in 1880. In 1881 Colonel Olcott brought out 
a Buddhist Catechism, which, approved by Sumangala, the High 
Priest of Ceylon, has since been translated into nearly every 
language on the globe. In the same year Mr. A. P. Sinnett's 
Occult World was published, while 1882 saw the first issue of The 
Perfect Way. In 1883 two new magazines were started by the Hin- 
dus themselves, one of them the Mahrathi Theosophist, consisting 
almost exclusively of articles translated from the journal in the 
English language. In that year no less than half a dozen new 
books, beside the issue of numerous pamphlets, marked the 
Society's advance in the interest of the public mind. Among these 
publications was Esoteric Buddhism, now rightly famous. In 1884 
no less than twelve new books were published, while in 1885 twenty 
were issued, including translations intoTamil, German, and French. 
In 1886 four new magazines were started, The Path in America, 
E Aurore in France, Revue des Hautes Etudes, France, and The 
Sphinx of Germany; twenty-four new books were published that 
year, including translations into German and Urdu. In 1887 a 



86 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

new magazine was founded by Madame Blavatsky in London 
called Lucifer, and in the same year The Lotus was founded in 
Paris; while the next year saw the issue of the first number of the 
Buddhist. In these two years no less than seventy-eight works 
were brought out, including numerous translations into German, 
French, Sanskrit, Urdu, Bengali, Canarese, Telugu, Japanese, 
Swedish, and other languages. 1888 also witnessed the publication 
of the Secret Doctrine, Madame Blavatsky's great work. About 
seventy-seven works were issued in 1889-1890, many of them 
being translations by the Hindus from their ancient literature; a 
new English sectional magazine The Vahan was first issued in 
the latter year. In 1891 fifty-six works were published, including 
Madame Blavatsky's Glossary and translations into French, Telugu, 
Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, German, and other languages. Five new 
magazines were brought out that year: Prasnottara and Pauses in 
India; Teosofisk Tidskrift in Sweden ; The New Californian and 
The Pacific Theosophist in America. In 1892 thirty-seven works 
were published, including the usual translations into the various 
languages of the globe; and six new magazines — one European, 
one Dutch, one German, one Indian, one Irish, and one Australian. 
A great number of works have been issued in the present year 
also. 

These statistics, it must be borne in mind, deal only with the 
larger works and magazines, and do not, save in the most thread- 
bare manner, give any. idea of the extent of the Society's labor in 
the field of literature. They are drawn chiefly from the reports of 
the President of the Society at the annual convention of Theoso- 
phists held at the headquarters in Adyar, Madras, India. In 
these but scanty mention is made of the numberless tracts and 
pamphlets published year by year, and none whatever of the 
numbers distributed gratuitously by the members. This would in 
the nature of things be entirely impossible in any report, but it is 
estimated that about 2,000,000 brochures and circulars are annually 
disseminated by our fellows among the peoples of every nation. 

The demand for our literature yearly grows. No one can have 
failed to have noticed the creeping into our novels and popular 
works of Theosophical thought. Already several Occult and 
Theosophical book stores are to be found in the larger towns of 
every country, all of which shows a demand on the part of the 
public for publications of this kind. It would be obviously not 
possible to give any idea of the amount thus issued to the public, 
but we may rest assured that it is immense if we make ourselves 
acquainted with the knowledge of the intense craving for the study 
of the spiritual sciences that has lately developed in the world, 
which, it may in strictest accuracy be said, has come about almost 
entirely through the labors of the members of the Theosophical 
Society. A single instance will suffice as illustration of this devel- 
opment : the Secret Doctrine, a work of the most profound research, 
and which has drawn expressions of astonishment from the most 
scholarly men of our time on account of the depth of its phil- 
osophy, has yet, since the date of its issue, 1889, passed through 
three editions. 






REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 87 

A great feature in the work of spreading literature of this kind 
over the world has been the translating of Sanskrit and other Oriental 
works into English, and thus flooding the Western world with the 
wisdom of the East. If not so much as could be desired has been 
accomplished in this direction owing to lack of funds, the Society 
has yet accomplished more than any other body in the world in 
gathering together the more valuable of these works, thereby 
affording an opportunity to the Europeans for studying the origin 
of their own beliefs. The library at the Headquarters of the Society 
is now one of the most important, if not the most important, in 
India ; and it has become so because the Hindus, trusting the 
Theosophists, have given freely of their ancient literature before 
withheld from the eye of the mlecchha. The report issued in 
December last showed the library to contain nearly 3,500 Oriental 
works and manuscripts, some of the latter extremely rare. 

But you must not for a moment imagine that the work of the 
Theosophical Society is entirely a propagandizing of philosophy. 
To the extent of its ability it engages in practical work of all kinds 
for the alleviation of suffering and the upholding of justice. Of 
the latter may be mentioned the founding of Buddhist schools in 
Ceylon, the registration of which is as far as possible prevented by 
the government. This persecution forces the children to attend 
the Christian schools and become Christians ; thus they are 
estranged from their parents and friends or else have to grow up 
in ignorance. Theosophists have done much to alleviate this 
distress. A number of schools have been established by their 
energy, and it is hoped that in that country, as in all the countries 
of the globe, all oppression — of open or underhand character — will 
eventually be non-existent, and that every man will be at liberty 
to worship as he himself desires, and to attach himself to that 
religion wherein he finds the most comfort for his soul. 

Again we have leagues and unions in the ranks of the Society 
established with the especial intent of performing charitable work. 
The " League of Theosophical Workers," an organization lately 
founded, is an attempt among other things to organize this work. 
It is an axiom of the Theosophist that he will never allow his brother 
to be in distress. Indeed, at several of the Branches of the Society 
the Presiding officer, before the opening of the meetings, reads a 
notice calling on all those members who know of any distress in 
the ranks or outside to inform the members of the Branch, that 
they may have opportunity to carry out practically by the allevia- 
tion of suffering the first object of the Society — Brotherhood. 

It would be wholly impossible to fully detail all the labors of 
the members of the Society in their endeavor to forward the move- 
ment and to inculcate those ideals of charity, good-will, tolerance, 
and religious and self-sacrificing life which they, by actively real- 
izing in their own lives, have found to carry peace ; and which they 
are individually assured would, if striven after by the whole world, 
achieve the salvation of Humanity. The acts of the members too 
have been labors of love, and many of them must therefore remain 
forever unknown to few but the doer. 

The growth of the Society has not come about through clever 



88 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

and diplomatic management ; through patronage by the great ; 
through large resources. It has grown and increased in strength 
through the devotion of the members to the highest ideals ; to their 
reliance on the Great Law, the representative of the divine source 
of all things ; through their active work for the world ; and through 
their belief in and trust in that true Brotherhood of Humanity, of 
which the Mahatmas inspiring and directing our Society are the 
types. It is to form such a Brotherhood among the peoples of all 
nations that they labor ; to unite together Religions, Sciences, and 
Philosophies, breaking down the barriers of superstition, conceit, 
and envy. Our Society whose organization we have just examined 
must, like all other movements, run its time. It is but a bridge to 
greater and greater achievements by mankind in the future ; and 
to the eye of eternity it must be but a short-lived structure. But 
it will last for many ages, for it teaches the religion of the future 
— the religion without priest-craft or oppression. Its rest will only 
be known on the day when it has inspired all men to a reverence 
for its message — active altruism and spiritual discernment. 

Mr. Wright then as Secretary to the Chairman read the fol- 
lowing statistics sent by President H. S. Olcott : 



BOOKS PUBLISHED IN INDIA UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 
THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY FROM 1883. 



Pamphlet 



Book 8. 

Pamphlet 9. 
Book 10. 

Pamphlet 11. 
Journal 12. 
Book 13. 

Pamphlet 14. 

15- 

16. 

17. 

18. 

19. 
Book 20. 

Pamphlet 21. 
Pamphlet 22. 

23. 
24 

25- 
26. 
27. 
28. 
29. 
30. 



Sanskrit Primer, by Pandit Nityanunda Misra. 

An Elementary Primer for Sanskrit, Telugu, and Tamil, by 

Dewan Bahadur R. Raghunatha Row. 
An Advanced Primer for Sanskrit, Telugu, and Tamil, by Dewan 

Bahadur R. Raghunatha Row. 
Hints on Esoteric Theosophy No. 1. 

Hints on Esoteric Theosophy No. 2, by A. O. Hume, Esq. 
Thoughts on the Metaphysics of Theosophy, by Sundaram Iyer. 
Paradoxes of the Highest Science. 

A Collection of Lectures, by Col. Olcott, P. T. S., Madras Edition. 
A Buddhist Catechism in English, by Col. Olcott. 
Theosophy, by Dewan Bahadur P. Sreenivasa Row. 
A Tamil translation of the 1st Upanishad, by Mr. T. Iyer. 
A Marathi Edition of the Theosophist at Poona. 
Translation of Arnold's Light of Asia into Bengali Verse. 
Telugu translation of articles in the Theosophist relative to 

Mahatmas, etc., by Purnayza. 
Urdu translation of Hints on Esoteric Theosophy. 
Translation into Urdu of the Rules of the T. S. 
Catechism of Hinduism (in Bengali) by N. K. Banergi. 
English translation of Isavasyopanishad. 
Madame Fox's Lectures in Madura, by Madura Branch. 
Translation of Varahamiheras Samhita. by N. C. Iyer. 
Translation of Sankracharyas Tatuabodha into Urdu. 
Urdu translation of Col. Olcott's Lectures on the Civilization that 

India needs. 
Light on the Path, by M. C. (English Madras Edition.) 
Telugu Catechism on Theosophy, by Guntur, T. S. 
Translation into Telugu of Panchakosavivada. 
Translation into Telugu of Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms. 
Urdu translation of the Elixir of Life and the Occult World. 
Hindi translation of Atmanatmaviveka and T S. Rules. 
Publication of Lecture by Dorasami Pillai on Theosophy. 
Translation of Kena Upanishad. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 



8 9 



Pamphlet 31. 




32 




33 




34 




35 




36. 


Book 


37- 


> t 


38. 


Pamphlel 


:39- 




40. 




41 




42. 




43- 




44- 


" 


45 


Book 


46 


Pamphle 


-47- 


" 


48. 




49 


Book 


50 


Pamphlel 


- 51- 


'* 


52 


Journal 


53- 


Book 


54- 


Pamphle 


t 55- 


" 


56. 


Book 


57 


Pamphle 


.58. 


" 


59- 


< < 


60. 


Book 


61. 


Pamphlet 62. 




63 


" 


64. 




65. 


Book 


66 


'• 


67. 


. i 


68. 


« 


69 




70 


" 


7i 


• ( 


72. 


Pamphle 


t 73 




74 




75- 


" 


76 


Pamphle 


t-77- 


Book 


78. 




79 




80. 




81. 




82. 




83 


Pamphlel 


.84. 


Book 


85. 


Pamphlel 


86. 



Guzrati translation of Hints on Esoteric Theosophy No. 1. 

Major-General Morgan's Reply to Gribble's Pamphlet. 

Lecture on Duties of Man. by P. C. Mukerji. 

Lecture on the Logic of Common Sense, by Prof. M. N. Dvivedi. 

Translation of Vakysutha. 

Translation of Aparokshanubhuti. 

Paul's Yoga Philosophy edited by Mr. Tukaram Tatya. 

English translation of Bhagavadgita, by Wilkins. 

A Handbook of Theosophy in Urdu 

Urdu translation of the Elixir of Life, by Rai Kishen Lall. 

A Short Treatise on Homcepathic, by Rai Kishen Lall. 

A Lecture in English on Yoga, by Mr. V. Krishna Iyer. 

English translation of Sankaracharya's Atomabodh. 

English translation of a Portion of the Unpublished Writings of 

Eliphas Levi. 
Hinduism : A Retrospect and Prospect 
Bengali translation of Colebrooke's English edition of Sankhya 

Karika 
Tamil translation of Col. Olcott's Lecture on the Past, Present, 

and Future of India. 
A Tamil Translation of Light on the Path. 
A cheap Edition of that work (English), specially prepared for 

India. 
The Purpose of Theosophy, by Mrs. Sinnett (reprint). 
Magic White and Black, by Dr. F. Hartmann. 
The Atomabodh translated into English, by B. P. N. 
The Jamai Ul-Uloon, a Monthly Urdu Journal, by Moradabad, 

T. S. 
A Second Edition of Patanjali's Yoga Philosophy, edited by 

Tukaram Tatya. 
Hindi translation of Tatwabodh. 

Bengali translation of Prasnottaramala, by Bholanath Chatterji. 
Prabodhachandrodaya. 

Psychometry and Thought-Transference, by N. C. 
A New Indian Edition of the Buddhist Catechism. 
A Madhva Catechism by P. Sreenivasa Row. 
A Compendium of Rajayoga, by M. N. Dvivedi. 
Sayings of Grecian Sages. 

Perils of Indian Youth ; a Lecture by Col. Olcott. 
The Aim of Life by Siddheshwar Ghose. 
A translation in Urdu of the Lecture entitled, The Civilization 

that India needs. 
The Zoroastrian and other Religions, by Dhunjibhoy Jamsetji. 
The Phaedo of Plato, reprint, by Dhunjibhoy Jamsetji. 
Bhagavatgita in Sanskrit, with Commentary in Telugu Character, 

by C. Ramiah. 
Vicharasagara in Hindustani, edited by S. S Mahomed. 
Rigveda Samhita (text only), by Bombay T. S. P. Fund. 
Bhagavadgita, 2d Edition. 
Sankhya Karika, by Bombay T. S. P. Fund. 
Epitome of Aryan Morals, it. 000 copies. 
Psychometry and Thought Transference. 2d Edition. 
Golden Rules of Buddhism, by Col. Olcott. 
Visishtadwaita Catechism, by Pandit Bhashyacharya. 
Canarese Edition of Aryan Morals. 
Siva Sanhita (trans.) by S. C. Basu. 
Mumukshamargopadesini in Telugu. 
Brihat Jataka (trans.) by N. C. Iyer. 
Shatpanchasika (trans ) by N. C. Iyer. 
Jinendramala with Notes (trans.) by N. C. Iyer. 
Discourses on Bhagavatgita by Mr. T. Subba Row. 
Light on the Path (trans.) in Sanskrit by Bhashya Charya. 
The 1st Ashtak of the Rigveda Samhita with Bhashya. 
A New Edition of Bhagavatgita in Sanskrit. 



9° 

Book 



" 


o/. 

88. 


" 


89. 


Pamphlet 


90. 


" 


91. 


Book 


92. 


Pamphlet 


93. 




94- 


" 


95- 


" 


96. 


" 


97- 


tt 


98 


" 


99. 


" 


100. 


" 


IOI. 


Book 


102. 


Pamphlet 


103. 


Book 


104. 


Pamphlet 


105. 


'■ 


106. 


Book 


107. 


Pamphlet 108. 


" 


109. 




no. 


' ' 


III. 


' ' 


112. 


' ' 


113. 


' ' 


114. 


' ' 


"5- 


4 ' 


116. 


1 ' 


117. 


" 


118. 


1 


119. 


" 


120. 


" 


121. 


* ' 


122. 


' ' 


123. 


" 


124. 


Book 


125- 


1 ' 


126. 


' ' 


127. 


" 


128. 


Book 


129. 


Pamphlel 


- 130. 




131. 


' ' 


132. 




133- 


" 


134- 


' ' 


135. 


" 


136. 




137- 


< i 


138. 


" 


139- 


' ' 


140. 


' ' 


141. 


' ' 


142. 


< t 


143. 


' ' 


144. 


< t 


145. 


< < 


146. 


" 


147. 


« i 


148. 


1 1 


149 



THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

Krishna Yajurneda, in Sanskrit Devanagari Type. 

Krishna Yajurneda, in Telugu Type. 

Divya Suri charitram by A. Govindacharlu. 

Sadhana chathustaya, by R Jagannathiah. 

The Morals of Bharatam, by R S. Pandiah. 

The Desatir, by Dhunjibhoy J. Mehta. 

Raja yoga by Manila! N Dvivedi. 

Sayings Grecian Sages. Part II. 

Urdu translation of Paul's Yoga Philosophy. 

Sinshu catechism. 

Improved Edition of Visishtadwaita catechism. 

Tamil translation of Elementary B. catechism. 

Selections from White & Black Magic translated into Urdu. 

New Edition of Raja yoga. 

Monism, or Adwaitism. 

New Edition of Patanjali's Yoga Philosophy. 

Tamil translation of Probadh Chandrodaya. 

Complete Edition of Rigveda Samhita with Commentary. 

Introduction to the Kabalah. 

Sabdakalpadruma. 

Rigveda Brahmana in Telugu character. 

The Gnyana and Karma Meanings of first four Anwakams. 

Mantrapushpam, with meanings. 

Sathathapa Dhurma Sastram. 

Sathathapa Samhita. 

Sathathapa Likhita Samhita. 

Sathathapa Likhita Somhita. 

Senkha Dhurma Sastram. 

Senkha Likhita Sastram. 

Budha Dhurma Sastram. 

Yagmya Valkiya Smriti. 

Brahaspati Dharmasastram. 

Pulasthiya Dharmasastram. 

Hareetha Dharmasastram. 

Vrudha Parasara Smriti. 

Devala Smriti. 

Buddhism, translated into Urdu. 

The Aitareya Brahmana 

Principal Twelve Select Upanishads. 

Poetical Works of Tukaram Bava. 

Poetical Works of the followers of Tukaram Bava. 

Complete Poetical Works of Dadupath. 

Srimat Bhagavata 

Atmabodh, translated into Guzrati. 

Zoroastrianism in the Light of Occult Phil. 

Raja yoga, by M. N. Dvivedi (2d Edition). 

Telugu translation of Mahabarata. 

Telugu translation of Light on the Path. 

"The Sandhyavandana " or " the Daily prayers of Brahmins." 

Urdu translation of Key to Theosophy. 

Bhagavat gita (Pocket Edition in Sanskrit Text in Devanagari) 

Cheap Edition. 
Peril of Indian youth. New Edition Col. Olcott's Lectures. 
The Place of Peace, by Mrs. Annie Besant (Madras reprint). 
Prasnottara, Vols. I. and II. 
Rough outline of Theosophy (Madras reprint) 
The Stanzas of Dzyan. by H. P. B. (Madras reprint.) 
The Uttaragita, by Tukaram Tatya. 
Vedanta vartikam by B. P. Narasimiah. 
Yoga the Science of Soul, by Mr. Mead (Madras reprint). 
Asceticism, by Col. Olcott. 
Why I became a Theosophist (reprint). 
Absolute Monism, by Sundram Iyer. 
Annie Besant on Theosophy (reprint). 



Pamphlet 150 
151 
151 
152 
153 
154 

Journal 155 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 

Theosophical Gleanings, No. 1. 

Theosophy for School boys, by O. L. Sarma. 

Kinship between Hinduism & Buddhism, by Col. Olcott. 

Guide to Theosophy, by Tukaram Tatya. 

Ramayana, by Tulasi Dass. Edited by Kundan Lai, 

Kanarese translation of Dwaita Catechism. 

Theosophic Thinker, by R. Jagannathiah. 



9 1 



The above list certified as correct this 2d day of August, 1893, at Adyar, 
Madras. 

H. S. Olcott, 

Prest. Theosophical Society. 



LIST OF SCHOOLS IN INDIA AND CEYLON UNDER THE AUSPICES 
OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 





Girl's Vernacular 
Schools. 


boys' vernacular 
Schools. 


English 
Schools 
Regis- 
tered. 


Mixed 
Schools. 


Indus- 
trial 
Schools. 




Regis- 
tered. 


Unregis- 
tered. 


Regis- 
tered. 


Unregis- 
tered. 


Ceylon . . 


4 


I 


4 


9 


5 


7 

Total, 


2 




3 2 









u 




h£ 








•j-i w 

M O 

o3 O 


Ufa 


too 


a 2 


<D 03 2 


, «3 

Si O 

3-3 


Total. 




CflC/2 


w 


> 






Cfl 




India .... 


15 


4 


4 


5 


6 


4 


38 



Certified as correct this 2d day of August, 1893, Adyar, Madras. 



H. S. Olcott, 
Pres't Theosophical Society. 



92 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



THE MISSION OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



PROF, CHAKRAVARTI. 



Ladies and Gentlemen — I come from a land hoary with an- 
tiquity. I belong to a race bent with age. I profess a religion the 
dawn of which is, according to our mythology, simultaneous with 
the dawn of creation, and the greatest research has not been able 
to prove to the contrary. The religion I belong to was once gigan- 
tic in its strength. It was like the mighty oak round whose trunk 
crept the various ivies, with all the moral, political, and social in- 
stitutions and organizations of my mother country. But even an 
Indian sky is not without its cloud. Time came when this oak 
round which all the institutions were twined, lost its sap. It 
seemed that all the institutions would wither away with the passing 
away of the life of the oak round which all of them clustered. 
It seemed that the mighty edifice with all its grand architect- 
ure was tottering, and once we were about to exclaim, " Shrine 
of the Mighty, is this all that remains of thee?" Yet this 
shrine of the Mighty Religion ' seemed once to be gasping 
for breath. It seemed that every moment might be its last, 
and that in spite of the inherent strength which it had in its 
constitution, it must die at last. What better proof can I 
give you of its native inherent vigor and its essential truth 
than the fact that it has for ages and ages been able to resist 
the buffets and blows of the outside world ? Centuries after cen- 
turies have roiled over its hoary head. Empires after empires 
have risen and fallen upon its mighty breast. Foreign invasion 
and destructive revolutions have battered it with mighty armies ; 
waves and surges of foreign ideas have permeated through its 
bosom ; and yet it stands to-day, moss-covered, it may be, but yet 
a monument of what truth can be, and of what the mighty Rishis, 
the great ancestors and progenitors of the Hindus, the depositaries 
of the sacred truths, can accomplish. And yet that very religion 
of whose strength I am now talking to you, seemed to be going 
into the bottomless abyss of oblivion. 

At such a moment as this, at such a juncture, which was only 
about fifteen years ago, when all those who knew what the religion 
was felt an anxiety about its future, when they saw that the 
frail moral bark of the Hindu youth had left the shore, was reced- 
ing from its haven of rest and peace, and that slowly but surely 
and steadily it was proceeding on to be shattered against the rock 
of materialism, which in India had swept in from the West, their 
hearts were sad with the most dismal forebodings. The material- 
ism of Europe had reached India through the influence of our 
Governors. Schools were established in which, according to the 
policy of a religious neutrality, nothing but secular education is 
given. The minds of the Indian youths who resorted to these 
schools in preference to the Sanscrit schools where a religious 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 93 

education was given, became imbued with materialism. They 
would not go to their old schools, and why ? Because in India 
there is also a struggle for life, as everywhere else, although to 
very much less extent. All the prized positions of life, all the 
appointments of government, were reserved for those who had 
obtained the advantage and the so-called blessings of the so- 
called liberal education of the English Schools and Colleges. The 
rooms became filled, and in them they learned a lot of intellectual 
culture, a great deal of science, and a great deal, I regret to say, of 
material philosophy. Their minds originally pure, originally spir- 
itual, originally imbued with the spirit of their religion, lost their 
color, and became covered over with a thick crust of ideas which 
came from the West. They began to think that, after all, their 
mighty Rishis, after all, the religion that had nestled them in its 
lap, might be a delusion, might be false; that all the light of the 
modern sun which had shone resplendent in the West showed no 
such illusion, does not show to the sight those grand truths that 
they had taken with their mothers' milk; and, dazed with the false 
electric light of modern philosophy, with the light of modern civili- 
zation, they proved false and became traitors to their traditions, to 
their associations, to their mothers' milk and their mothers' bosom. 
They thought that truth could be found only in the pages of 
Huxley and Spencer, and they ran after those theories of material 
existence, material thought, and material consciousness with which 
you are only too familiar. 

At the moment of this crisis, help was bound to come, because 
India's death-note had not yet struck. It had yet its mission to 
perform in the history of the world. It had yet to help the coming 
tide of evolution, it had yet to send its ideas across oceans, to lift 
the million souls ; and therefore help came. But not from its 
mighty Shastras, not from its learned priests and Brahmins, who 
were the traditional teachers of mankind. But strange and inscru- 
table are the ways of Heaven. Help came from a quarter from 
which it was least expected — least looked for. It came from the 
West. Across oceans and continents reached forth the helping 
hand which was to save that frail bark which was proceeding 
towards death. Yes, from the land in which you were born and 
imbibed doctrines of materialism, to that land belongs the honor, 
the credit, the satisfaction of having saved India from that terrible 
destiny. 

From this land went out two persons in the form of Madame 
Biavatsky and Colonel Olcott, with all their inspirations derived 
from that great storehouse of the East, from that tremendous 
accumulated spiritual energy of the East, but unknown through 
the West. There came this Society, with the wonders and successes 
that have followed in its train. They went about the country and 
sounded trumpet calls to the Hindus, saying, "Oh, sons of India, 
how long is the slumber to last ? Will you never wake to the con- 
sciousness that you are the spiritual progenitors of mankind ? 
From you, as from the sun, have radiated the different religions 
which are now the centre of light to so many races of the world. 
Will you never awaken to the consciousness that in your own 



94 



THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



books, within your own bosoms, may be found that fount of truth 
from which have proceeded streams of immortal, spiritual verity ? " 

We heard, first with suspicion, then with doubt. It cannot be 
true. Can this be true ? It is too good to be true ; but yet we 
searched, we examined, we looked, we criticised, and to our surprise, 
what a pleasant disappointment it was ! We knew we were wrong. 
We examined our books, and below the superficial crust we found 
that amid the ores of our Shastras there were real and magnificent 
specimens of brilliant diamonds. We awoke to the consciousness 
that our religion was not, after all, the contemptible and despicable 
monster which the Christian ministers had taught us to regard it. 
The truths and the propositions which in our own Shastras lay 
buried with the dust of ages, began once more to reveal their 
bright surface to our eyes. Why? Because they were presented, 
not in the old traditional forms, but in the modern form of the 
West. To that woman, H. P. Blavatsky, was given the proud 
privilege of putting truths into the East and into the bosom of the 
Hindus, in a form which was to draw them again to their own 
religion. Thus Hinduism was presented again to the Hindus, 
decked up again with all the trappings of modern science and 
enriched with the metaphysical notions of modern German philo- 
sophical thought, and young India, which had ere long revelled in 
the intoxicating drink of modern science and modern philosophy, 
saw that its religion stood even the test of what it considered the 
climax of human intellection. It returned, therefore, to the study 
of its own Shastras, to appreciate its own religion, and to-day we 
are very much nearer our old home than we were fifteen years ago. 

It has been asked how it was possible that the East in which 
there are so many spiritual beings, in the East which has the 
satisfaction of having the largest store of spiritual knowledge, 
could have required any aid from the West. The answer is, that 
the ways of working in the East and the West are entirely differ- 
ent. In the East the ways are very often on the spiritual plane. 
The "man of knowledge in the East waits until he can develop in 
himself capacities to work on a plane which is higher and nobler 
than any of which you have any conception. The work done on 
the spiritual plane produces an element which bears no comparison 
to any that can be produced on the physical or on the intellectual 
plane. But in India, as everywhere else in the world, there is a 
large mass of humanity which is not spiritual enough to be taken 
into the sanctum of that spiritual training. There is a large class 
of mankind which can only be reached on the plane of intellect, 
and this class cannot be neglected. All different parts of human 
society are different ; part of mankind which has not advanced so 
far as to be directly touched on the plane of spirit requires to be 
reached on the intellectual plane, and this work was supplied by 
the Theosophical Society. 

In the work of propaganda, in the work of spreading the truths 
which were really in the Shastras, but which were neglected, un- 
seen, misunderstood, in the work of supplying the mind of young 
India, gorged with the food of materialism, some real pabulum of 
truth, in order to maintain its spiritual vigor, the Theosophical 






REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 95 

Society has been an inestimable boon, and the people of India 
realize this, and, as has been already read to you by Brother 
Wright, they are now opening up their own treasures for the benefit 
of the West. The great books of occultism are now being trans- 
lated into the language of the West, for the benefit of the brothers 
who have been of such opportune help to them. 

Here in the West I have been struck with the amount of real 
advance that you have made, but that advance, I am sorrv to say, 
represents but one phase of the human constitution. It represents 
but a partial development of the entity which we call Man. It has 
been explained to you already in the course of these sessions that 
Man is a composite being, and that the physical part of man, 
although great, is by no means the all-important one. The all-im- 
portant part of man is of a spiritual nature, which, indeed, requires 
cultivation, and without which all material advance is but as dross. 
You therefore want here what the East can give you — the light of 
spiritual truths, and when you have that, it will prove to be like 
the philosopher's stone, which, whatever it touches, it turns into 
gold. All your luxuries, all your material advancement, will not 
then be the poor material things which they are now. In the light 
of the spirit they will all shine bright. They will all have their 
proper place, and by the influence of the Theosophical Society may 
be brought about that day when with all your material advance- 
ment you may be able to walk in the light of the spirit with dreams 
of that eternal home, with that sweet, balmy breath which alone 
can make the things of flesh really pleasant. India feels to-day the 
debt which it owes to the West, and therefore I believe that the 
Theosophical Society in the future has a very grand mission to 
perform. It has for its project the grand unification of the East 
and the West, the organizing effort of the West and the spiritual 
energy of the East, — the head of the West and the he'art of the East. 

And it is only from this unity, it is only from a compact between 
spirit and matter, it is only by mutual help, each supplying what 
the other needs, that we can bring about that Universal Brother- 
hood which all of us are striving for. And even now, I say that it 
has been my practical experience that the idea has been more or 
less realized. 

Why, I am of the Brahmin community, a community which has 
been aristocratic enough to show itself unwilling to have inter- 
course with the modern world, and I have left that community, I 
have left my home, — and why? To see, to meet, to talk to, to 
stand on a common platform with my brothers in the West who 
are fighting for the same idea, living for the same truth, drinking 
from the brink of the same fountain ; and I shall not surprise you 
when I say that in this strange land, in this land where I cannot 
see even one face which belongs to my own race and my own clan, 
I have met the very kindest treatment, — nay, strong and warm 
brotherly affection. Wherever I have been, my heart has been 
touched to the quick by the immense love which has been accorded 
to me. I have been treated everywhere I have been as a member 
of their own family, as one who has been dear to them for ages 
and ages, and one between whom and them there did exist no wall 



96 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

whatsoever. This has touched my heart, and I shall go back and 
tell my people the welcome you have accorded me, the heartiness 
with which you have greeted me, the brotherly warm hand you 
have extended to me. And India is not ungrateful, in spite of the 
slanders and miserable representations which have been cast upon 
its poor face. India, I say, is not ungrateful. It will remember 
your love, and will try its best, whatever its poor mite can, to repay 
the heavy debt which you have laid it under. And yet — yes, even 
now — I can see the withered and gaunt hands of the spirit of my 
mother land, land of mysteries, land of occultism, land of sanctity, 
stretching out across oceans and continents, and from its fingers 
flowing out plentiful currents of its sentient spirituality over the 
heads of the people of America, shedding its blessings of peace 
and of love. 



THE SOCIETY ABSOLUTELY UNSECTARIAN, WITHOUT 
A CREED, AND OPEN TO PERSONS OF ALL FAITHS 
ACCEPTANCE OF DOCTRINES LARGELY TAUGHT 
IN THEOSOPHICAL LITERATURE NOT IN- 
CUMBENT. ITS RELATION TO CIVIC 
AFFAIRS AND EDUCATION. 



WILLIAM Q. JUDGE. 



Brothers and Sisters — It is now my duty to attempt to deal 
further with the subject of the Organized Life of the Theosophical 
Society. Brother Wright has taken up some points which I would 
have taken up in other circumstances ; Brother Chakravarti has 
outlined to you as a Brahman, as a member of the Indian Section, 
what he thinks is the mission of the Theosophical Society and 
what its mission there so far has resulted in. You have had from 
Brother Wright a great deal of fact. He must have conveyed to 
you the impression that the Theosophical Society has accomplished 
a good deal of work, or else that we have been telling a lie, one or 
the other. I think that you will believe him, that we have accom- 
plished an enormous amount of work in eighteen years against 
most strenuous and bitter opposition. And it is the custom in 
America, and especially in the West, and most especially in Chi- 
cago, to measure results by money. How could we have accom- 
plished all this, how could we have printed all those books with- 
out printing presses, without paper, without salaries, without peo- 
ple to do the work, and that you think takes money ? Perhaps 
you think we have a secret fund from which we have drawn some 
millions, laid away amongst the buried treasures of India, which 
one or two of us can draw from now and then, so as to enable us 
to do work which other bodies can accomplish only by the use of 
money. But it is not so. We have little money and never had 
much. We do not want it, do not expect it, and the day when we 
shall have a large fund and be able to collect $5,000,000 in imita- 
tion of Western missionary bodies will be the day when the 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 97 

Theosophical Society will die. It is not money that has done this. 
It is the energy of the human heart. These people who are here 
with me are only representatives of many, many persons all over 
the world who are willing to give their life, their energy, their 
time to a movement which they think will benefit man. They get 
nothing for it ; they get no preference. What is it of honor to 
preside at a meeting like this ? What is it for any person to be 
a member of a Branch ? What is it to be the President of the 
Theosophical Society ? Nothing at all. There is no honor in it 
whatever. There are no places, no salaries, nothing at all but 
work. 

Brother Chakravarti gave you an idea of our future. It has 
been said against us that this movement of ours was an invention 
of the East, but he must have made you suspect that perhaps this 
movement is unique, that it came neither from the East nor the 
West. The East has solidified, crystallized, stood still ; it would 
never have commenced such a movement. The West did not 
know about such things ; it did not want them. We are wrapped 
up in material progress ; it never would have started such a move- 
ment. Where, then, was the movement really started ? It was 
started in the spiritual world above, both East and West, by living 
men. Not by spirits of dead men, but by living spirits, living 
spirits like yourselves, who have risen above creeds and nations 
and castes and peoples, and are simply human beings. They 
started this movement by giving the impulse and the message ; 
that is why we who have been in it so long have the confidence 
born of knowledge, knowledge that it will succeed. And as 
Claude Wright told you, we began at the time under direction, 
when we knew that materialism was spreading, not only over the 
West, but was spreading insidiously all over the East. As Brother 
Chakravarti told you, it was turning the mind of the East, not to 
Christianity — never could that be done — but into the grossest 
forms of materialism. That is to say, that the West itself with its 
missionaries was corrupting a vast mass of men and turning them 
into men who believed in nothing but annihilation after this life. 
If you could have succeeded in converting them to Christianity, it 
would have been well enough, for then they could rise up higher out 
of that into another spiritual life. But instead of succeeding with 
them in that, as I know from facts, from having been there, you 
were simply flinging them from their own beliefs into materialism, 
and the Theosophic Society was started to prevent that, and to 
prevent it in the West also. It has done something towards it. It 
has not been the one cause, but it has been the little lever, the little 
point in the centre, around which we are all working with all 
effectual means for the good of humanity. It is trying to offer the 
key to all these Congresses and to show all men where the truth is. 

Now, when the Theosophical Society was founded in 1875, 
if you could have heard what I did, you would have heard a 
huge laugh pass over the country by means of the newspapers. 
There was nothing else but laughter and jokes. The Society was 
an immense joke, they said ; a new kind of spiritualism ; some- 
thing of that sort to tickle men's fancies, and we have had that to 



98 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

contend with all the time. But we have succeeded always in re- 
maining at the post and saying just what we meant to say all the 
time for all the laughter. We took no salaries, but we had be- 
lief in the human heart. 

The objects of the Theosophical Society having been explained 
to you by Brother Wright, you know the Society has but one doc- 
trine, that of Universal Brotherhood. You cannot belong to it 
unless you believe in that ; you won't want to belong to it unless 
you believe in that. But you are not required to believe anything 
else. You are not required to believe in Brother Chakravarti ; 
you are not required to believe what, as the newspapers say, are 
the doctrines of " that woman Besant ;" you are not required to 
believe in Madame Blavatsky, who was a woman, a human being, 
just the same as the rest of us ; you are not required to believe in 
those great beings of whom Brother Chakravarti has been speak- 
ing. It has been supposed by some that in order to be a Theoso- 
phist you must believe in Mahatmas, that you must believe in H. 
P. Blavatsky, in re-incarnation, in Karma ; but you do not have to 
believe in any of those things at all. But, I take it, you must be- 
lieve in Universal Brotherhood. And the reason why people have 
been a little confused is this : they have seen the Theosophical 
Society absolutely without a creed, absolutely without any dogma, 
and as inside of it they know of a large number of people who 
believe in those ideas and doctrines, they think that is what the 
Theosophist must believe. But it is not. For, don't you see, if 
we started a Universal Brotherhood, and started a Society to find 
out the truth, and then fixed a dogma, that moment we would be 
telling a lie and forfeiting the whole object we started to accom- 
plish. We can never have a creed. We do not know what the 
truth is. It may be that we are wrong ; it may be we will find 
out more. It is true we will never go back to those old dogmas 
and creeds, although there are still many members on the books of 
the powerful churches. We can never go back there, but we may 
go further on, and we are quite willing to. We are promulgating 
our philosophies which we talk about as individuals and on our 
own account. As Vice-President of the Society I have no right 
to say that any particular thing is true, and I never do say so. But 
I have the right to say, as I myself emphatically do, that I as an 
individual believe certain things are true, and I would be a poor 
sort of man if, believing certain things to be true, I did not try to 
show that they are. But at the same time I have no right to say, 
as man or official, you must believe it because I do. I simply pre- 
sent it to you for your consideration, and it is for you to decide, not 
for me. I am not going to stop saying that I believe so and so 
because a few other persons cannot believe it. They can go on 
with me and we will agree to disagree, and we will only forward 
the cause of Universal Brotherhood. Because beliefs in particular 
creeds have nothing to do with how you treat another man. What 
creed is there in the statement republished by Jesus, promulgated 
by him, to do to others as you would have them do unto you ? No 
creed about that ; no paving of hell with the skulls of infants 
about that ; no belief in a particular sort of transmission of the 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 99 

spiritual life from St. Peter or Paul in that ; nothing at all to 
abridge the treatment of man and woman by man and woman in 
the way they should treat them. We have no creed, then, and we 
should have none. 

But the question is often asked : What have you as an organi- 
zation to do with labor, with legal questions, labor-saving forces, 
with education, with society ? We have nothing to do with them. 
Is it not true that man, if he has a knowledge as to how he ought 
to live, needs no law whatever? Was not St. Paul right when he 
spoke of that and said : you would become your own law ; know- 
ing the truth, you need no law ? What, then, has the Theosophical 
Society to do with law ? If there are to be laws, let them be passed 
and execute them, but the Theosophical Society has nothing to do 
with it as such. But every brother in the Theosophical Society 
must obey the law of the land in which he lives, for he would be a 
poor Theosophist if he did not. And the Theosophical Society 
has nothing to do with education. But its members may have as 
much to do with it as they please. But they have no right to say 
what is the Theosophical Society's idea of education. They can 
only say " That is my idea of it." And always they must and 
shall preserve these distinctions. We have been asked, what about 
this labor struggle? We have been asked why we do not join the 
Bellamyites and other co-operative societies ? If you want to go 
in, go in. The Theosophical Society, as such, has nothing to do 
with it. I am perfectly satisfied to live where I am and do my 
duty where I stand, without any new law of property, or with it, 
whichever you please. And the religion of the West which logic- 
ally ought to support all the various socialists and anarchists and 
nihilists is the Christian religion, because in the beginning it was 
a community. Jesus' system was a community in which every- 
thing was common property, and the early Christians threw all 
their money and property into one common box. Why, then, 
should not the Christian religion logically carry out all the plans 
of the socialists, anarchists, nihilists, and all the other ists who 
want to change the face of the earth by legislation ? But the 
Theosophist knows that legislation changes nothing whatever. 
There are laws now on every statute book in every State in the 
United States, laws enough if men would only execute them and 
live up to them. But a law that socialists shall share in this, or 
that there shall be no Trust in that, is passed ; and then there are 
the lawyers to get around the law, as they always can. So what is 
the use of passing the law at all ? There is no use whatever. 
Hence the Theosophical Society, as such, has nothing to do with 
such trumpery and democratic things as legislation. Let the men 
engaged in legislation go on legislating. If a Theosophist and he 
is born to be a legislator, or is born to be a judge, let him legislate 
as a citizen and not as a Theosophist, or let him be a judge and 
skilled lawyer. If they will know that philosophy which shows 
them what human life is, they will have begun to follow the law 
without knowing what the law is. America is the only land of all 
countries where the law is followed without the people knowing 
much of it. In America the people are orderly ; they understand 



IOO THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

life a little better than other people in the world, but they don't 
know so much about the masses of laws they have on their books. 
I believe personally that the day is coming when America is to be 
the country where the new race will be born that will know all 
about the true laws and what is right, and will be able to perform 
it. So, then, the Theosophical Society is not prepared to give out 
promulgations as to this or that particular item of legislation or 
education or civic affairs that people would have taught. 

They ask also about marriage. Why, you understand about 
marriage. You know how it is accomplished. We have nothing 
to do with it as a Society. We know there are many kinds of mar- 
riage, sometimes merely by tying a string, sometimes by walking 
around the fire. As a body we have nothing to do with these 
forms nor interfere in them. And as to prayer, if you want to 
pray, pray. But if you pray, and if you say you have a certain 
belief, live up to it. If you do not do so you are no Theosophist, 
nor a man, nor a proper living person. You are only a hypocrite. 
(Applause.) 

Now, the Theosophical Society is an unsectarian body. It does 
not have a creed. It never will have one if those persons in it now 
can possibly prevent it. It does not need a creed. It is open to 
everybody, of all sects and faiths, and for that reason it has been 
possible to bring into it men of all religions, men from India, 
China, Japan, Brahmins, as you have seen and as you have already 
before your eyes, which could not have been accomplished by any 
sect, Christian, or Buddhist, or Brahman. If the Buddhists started 
in India a Buddhist society, the Brahmins would not accept it. 
And if the Brahmins started a Brahmin propagandist society, the 
Buddhists would say they did not want it. So it is with the 
various Christian denominations : the Baptists, the Catholics, the 
Methodists, the Presbyterians. If any one of them, as a society, 
asked others to come in, none of the other different stripes or 
classes of Christians would come in. Each says it teaches the 
truth ; still the others do not come in. But Theosophy comes for- 
ward boldly and says : " All religions have underneath one single 
truth. None of the religions are perfectly true. It is impossible 
that they should be, because man is prone to err. Come into the 
Society in which as brothers helping each other we will examine 
all these faiths so that we may find out the truth under all. For 
we believe that in the beginning of human evolution great teachers 
gave the truth out, one single truth before the mingling of tongues 
on the tower of Babel, to man." That single truth was variously 
accepted and variously perceived, and out of these different per- 
ceptions they built up different creeds, and so they made a great 
many different sorts of faiths. But suppose you look into all of 
them. You find the Christians teaching for many years that man 
has a soul. Do you think that the Christians are the only ones 
who taught about the soul ? The Hindus have been teaching 
about the soul for ages. They have said always that man has a 
soul. The Japanese do the same thing. So do other races and 
religions. So in that one point they have always together been 
teaching the same thing. The Christians have been teaching 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. IOI 

about heaven and hell; about a sort of heaven which is very 
material, I admit, with pearly gates and golden streets and angels 
with robes such as no one ever saw and crowns upon their heads ; 
and hell full of fire and brimstone, with devils throwing people 
around with forks into the fire. The Buddhists have been teach- 
ing the same thing for ages. I can read to you out of their books 
about a copper vessel full of boiling oil into which they say fate 
puts a man. In this he goes down and down for thousands and 
thousands of years until he gets to the bottom ; then he begins to 
rise again to the top, rising for ages again, and when he gets to 
the top and thinks he is going to be let out, he begins to sink 
again, and that goes on for ages more. Is not that as bad and as 
material as the Christian hell ? And then the Eastern teaching of 
heaven, of an inimitable and incomprehensible place, yet just as 
material but better than the Christian heaven. The Abbe Hue 
went to Tartary many years ago. He was a Catholic priest. 
There he found ministers, monks, nuns, similar ceremonies to the 
Romish, the ministers using the different vestments and draperies 
of the Catholics, the taper, bell, candle, the book, the rosary, what 
not, everything. He brought back the tale to Europe and he pub- 
lished it. The explanation of the priests — of course they would 
not say so now — was that it was the invention of the Devil, who, 
knowing that Christianity was going to be abroad, went ahead of 
it and founded that imitation in the East so that Christian people 
would be confused. Well now, that is not the way to explain it. 
The proper way is, that man has these things as a universal prop- 
erty and always makes some mistakes. And so it is in Buddhism 
and every other religion. In Tibet they have a pope who is the 
great successor of the original founder of the thing, just the same 
as the Catholic pope. I don't care what sort of Western religion 
you bring forward ; the religions in the East are the older religions 
and the fountain, but there is a single stream of truth underneath 
all, and that single stream is what the Theosophical Society 
digs for and implores these religious men to find out. We ask 
them not to go before each other and say their own religion is the 
true one. But they ask if we can give mercy to a man's soul, 
wash away the blood from his hand, and take away his sin ? We 
say, Come, we will wash away your sin. How ? By giving men 
reasons to make them do differently. The history of the past 
shows that belief does not make men better. We think there is a 
philosophy which will compel them from within to do right, and 
that is what this search will reveal. It will reveal underneath all 
these religions this one diamond which shows its light through 
them all ; then all men can perceive it, then there will no longer be 
any necessity for the Theosophical Society, or for either creed or 
church ; it will simply be truth and the people will know. Look 
fairly and squarely at Christianity. I am simply asking you to 
consider facts. Here we have Jesus saying : Worship in secret. 
The Christians do not do it. Then there are all the different and 
contradictory statements made by the same religion. How can 
churches have the enormous cathedrals, the immense wealth, the can- 
nons and soldiers in their possession, if they are the representatives 



102 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

of Christ ? How can that be possible unless men are running 
after creeds and not truth? Even in the words of Jesus is to be 
found everything we want. I simply repeat to you that old truth 
taught by him long ago, for to find out the truth in respect to 
ethics is the chief object of the Theosophical Society, and to 
establish by Universal Brotherhood a basis from which that ethic 
may be preached, practiced, and followed without any mistake. 
Therefore, then, we ask you this : You have seen us here and you 
have seen our heathen ; some of them are now on the platform. 
We would like to know what you think of our heathen (applause), 
and what you think of this heathen Society that has been so much 
abused ? Is it a Society for spiritualism, for wonders, or for folly? 
It is here to talk common sense and not merely to talk about H. P. 
Blavatsky, a woman who is dead, but who was the grandest 
woman or man that I ever knew. It is not for that. It is to bring 
back the truth about the soul, which truth these heathens repre- 
sent as well as we, and they themselves are just as much in error 
as we. They do not know much more about it than we do. But 
these poor heathen have in their philosophy a little better state- 
ment of the truth than we have been able to invent. (Applause.) 
So I would ask you to wipe out of your mind that hymn which has 
done so much harm to Christian men and women, which reads : 

"What though the spicy breezes 
Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle. 
Where every prospect pleases, 
And only man is vile." 

Wipe that idea completely out with a sponge, and then you will 
see that we are all brothers and that by tolerating each other, by 
looking into each other's beliefs, not setting up creeds and dogmas, 
we shall at last realize that great ideal germ of perfection, human 
brotherhood, which object has equally engaged the attention of the 
great Initiates of all the human race. 



I am requested to announce that the World's Congress officers, 
in recognition of splendid success, have placed the Hall of Wash- 
ington at our disposal for an extra public meeting on Sunday 
evening. (Applause.) 

Adjourned until j p. m. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 103 



REINCARNATION OF THE SOUL A LAW OF NATURE. 



JEROME A. ANDERSON, M. D. 



By Reincarnation is understood the return of the human soul 
as a distinct, individualized ego or entity to earth, through repeated 
rebirths in physical bodies ; by a law of nature, that this process of 
reclothing in matter, or re-expressing in form, of the inner, ideating 
consciousness, is a universal law and obtains in every kingdom and 
upon every plane of the manifested Universe. The term Reincar- 
nation is, of course, limited to those forms which are reclothed in 
flesh ; re-embodiment expresses the general law of which Reincar- 
nation is a special instance. 

A demonstration of the truth that Reincarnation of the human 
soul takes place under a general law of nature may be arrived at 
by phenomenal exegesis or by philosophical inquiry. As, however, 
mere phenomena, no matter how scientifically observed and classi- 
fied, prove nothing except as they are philosophically explained, so 
phenomenal examination and philosophical explanation must, of 
necessity, proceed hand in hand, which will be the method of this 
paper. 

As a kind of basis by means of which to study and classify all 
lower phenomena, three all-embracing aspects in nature of that 
which philosophers speak of as the Absolute must be considered. 
These are Matter, Force, and Consciousness. Differing schools of 
thought have given differing degrees of importance to each of 
these ; some going so far as to claim one or more as mere " proper- 
ties " of the others. Theosophy is the sole philosophy in the West 
which recognizes all of the three as eternally co-existing hypostases 
of the One Absolute Existence, the Unknowable CAUSELESS 
CAUSE. 

It is an axiomatic truth that the sum total within the Kosmos 
of both Force and Matter can neither be added to nor taken from. 
A very little consideration makes it evident that Consciousness is 
also an immutable Whole. It is equally apparent that neither 
Force, Matter, nor Consciousness has ever been nor ever can be dis- 
sociated upon finite or manifested planes ; that the presence of one 
always implies the presence of all three, in some degree. That 
this is a fact in regard to matter and force is now recognized and 
expressed in the scientific generalizations of the Conservation of 
Force and the Indestructibility of Matter. If incapable of dissoci- 
ation, then, from its co-hypostases, Consciousness must also be con- 
served ; so that in these two generalizations of science are to be 
found the most conclusive evidence of the conservation of the con- 
sciousness of man, or of human intelligence. For Theosophy 
declares that, although composed of substance almost infinitely 
finer — and also infinitely more stable — than the coarse matter of 
our bodies, the human soul has a material basis whose associated 
force is displayed as ideation. Under the law of force-conservation 



104 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

and indestructibility of matter, this ideative or psychic force 
must be conserved, for it cannot be dissociated from its indestruct- 
ible material base. The conception, even, of pure Consciousness 
without attributes, of pure Force without a material vehicle, or of 
Matter not held in form by some mode of energy, is unthinkable. 
That consciousness is conserved throughout one life is so univers- 
ally present and palpable a fact that few recognize it because of 
its familiarity ; yet the constant widening of our mental horizon, 
from the cradle to the grave, through conscious experiences, shows 
that psychic energy, thus called into activity by the play of our 
senses, is conserved, and enters largely as a factor into the forma- 
tion of our personal character. At birth, mentality is almost a 
blank ; in the ordinary life, it is the lower mental or sense-con- 
sciousness which has built up the greater portion of the man. So 
evident is this that materialism has fallen into the error of thinking 
that it has built up all the man — a thing which will be shown to be 
impossible farther on. It suffices for our present purpose to prove, 
by the indisputable evidence of the conservation of consciousness 
in one life, as shown in and through that constant widening of our 
conscious area because of continuous sense-experiences, in that 
ceaseless modification of character through this widening, that 
consciousness is conserved ; and this not in any general or diffused 
way within the molecules of the brain, but as a real growth of per- 
sonal character. One might, indeed, fill his brain-mind with an 
almost infinite amount of heterogenous sense-impressions — a verita- 
ble mental chamber for all kinds of past experiences — but of what 
avail would all the rubbish be if there were not the Inner Experi- 
encer, in whom and by whom is experienced and expressed the 
modification of character thus brought about by this true conscious 
conservation? The rubbish in an old garret would be of just as 
great service in that conservation of consciousness shown in the 
creation of a personal character, as mental rubbish stored in the 
physical molecules of the brain, if there were not this permanent 
centre of consciousness, this Soul, as the conserving centre and 
basis, by whom all these sense-impressions are experienced, and in 
whom all their varied effects, in no wise resembling their original 
physical causes — the molecular sense-impacts — are conserved. We 
must admit, therefore, that consciousness is conserved ; that the 
addition of consciousness through sense-experiences, or in any 
other manner, is as veritable an addition in magnitude as is that 
of molecule to molecule, or, mathematically, that two plus two 
equals four. A law which we find universal upon one plane of 
nature— even though this be the material or molecular one — must 
of necessity have an identical or analogous action upon all planes, 
for two utterly opposing forces or modes of motion in nature can- 
not exist. For they must be equal or unequal. If unequal, then 
in the abysses of past eternities the greater must have annulled or 
destroyed the action — and even the existence — of the lesser ; if 
equal, then would all motion or change be impossible, and nature 
rest throughout eternity locked in the embrace of an infinite "dead 
center," and all the pulsings of Infinite Life cease. Therefore, if 
scientists are right — and who dares dispute this? — in assuming 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 105 

matter to be indestructible, the material base of the human soul is 
also indestructible ; if Force be eternally conserved, this includes 
psychic or mental force or energy ; and, unless we postulate the 
unthinkable proposition of the creation within space of something 
previously outside it, Consciousness is also conserved, and, of nec- 
essity, that which accompanies and controls both the other factors 
in human evolution, or the human soul. 

But if, under the law, consciousness be conserved, how are we 
to be assured that this applies to the human soul as a .^//"-conscious 
centre of permanent consciousness ? For a conservation of con- 
sciousness which does not carry forward to the new account the 
same Ego as a self-conscious experiencer and basis of this con- 
servation is valueless as far as any practical elucidation of the 
mysteries of human existence is concerned. Again questioning 
nature, our unerring teacher — if we but possess the power to compel 
her to surrender her secrets — we observe, in harmony with preced- 
ing generalizations, an entire absence of any general or diffuse 
matter, force, or consciousness in any of her kingdoms. Every 
manifestation of force has its material vehicle, as also its directing 
intelligence, and — although this may sometimes be indiscoverable 
by our imperfect senses and clumsy instruments — its expression in 
form, in terms of true three-dimensional matter. In the Unknow- 
able and Unmanifested, we may, perhaps, speculate about the 
"formless." In all the manifested Universe, "formless" is but a 
relative term — the measure of our finite capacities. Therefore, in 
the Manifested Universe there can be no consciousness except as 
expressed in conscious entities of some degree ; no force which is 
not modified and directed by the will of some grade of conscious 
beings ; no matter which is not ensouled by and the expression in 
form of some single entity or hierarchal host of associated entities 
in the awe-inspiring Universe of Life — aye, a Universe in which all 
is Life, and in which there is not, never was, and never can be such 
a thing as real death ! 

The Universe, then, is embodied consciousness ; is composed 
of infinite hosts of entities in equally infinite states of consciousness 
and manifestations of form. Upon our earth, scientists declare 
that all organic life is in a process of evolution ; that the threshold 
of consciousness in man and throughout nature is being continu- 
ously displaced by this process. This is too often looked upon as 
an evolution of form only. It is an evolution of form, indeed, but 
a form whose sole object is to afford higher and more perfect 
vehicles for the expression of the inner consciousness. Thus 
evolution, which Theosophy carries into every kingdom and upon 
every plane of nature, shows that the conservation of intelligence, 
as gathered from conscious experiences in matter, is at the very 
foundation of nature's methods ; the logical and philosophical 
raison d'etre for material existence. Yet as matter, force, and 
consciousness are eternally associated, as the entire Universe is 
composed of hierarchal hosts of conscious entities, Reincarnation, 
or re-embodiment, is the only process by which this conservation 
of intelligence becomes possible. How can the wisdom resulting 
from material experiences — the joys, the agonies, the intellectual 



106 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

achievements, the incessant modifications of character through this 
widening of the conscious area — be conserved, unless the expe- 
riencer of them all remains untouched by the change called death? 
How has the water-breathing vertebrate passed the fathomless 
chasms which interrupt physical evolution, until we now behold it 
a flying denizen of the heavens, if there has not been an inner 
abiding entity, which was the fish and which is the bird ? Into 
what impossible region of nothingness has the widening conscious- 
ness been preserved at each of the innumerable deaths of the outer 
form which have interposed between the idea present and potent 
in the fish and its conscious consummation in the soaring eagle ? 
" By being stamped upon matter," perhaps the shallow theorist 
babbles — not far enough advanced in his own evolution to have 
become a really rational thinker — "by having been transmitted 
from parent to offspring through physical heredity." In all the 
boundless domains of nature, where can there be found one single 
instance of the transmitting of the results of the self-conscious 
experiences of one life to its offspring? The son of the wisest 
parents gets naught from them but his physical form, — a material 
strait-jacket which but cramps and limits the powers of his soul, 
and which transmits nothing but such limitations. He profits not 
from the wide experiences which the parent has undergone ; he is 
isolated from the knowledge and wisdom resulting from those 
experiences by a gulf which nothing material nor physical can 
possibly bridge over. Out of his own experiences must he really 
learn that fire will burn him on the physical plane ; that vice will 
taint him, and pure thoughts elevate him, on the moral plane. So, 
from his own centre of consciousness, out of his own experiences, 
must he reconstruct his old-new character. And he who thinks 
the process of character constructing is begun anew with each 
birth, is but a myopic observer. Nature is not mocked ; conscious- 
ness is ever conserved ; and the mighty sweep of evolution on all 
her planes proceeds with as irresistible a power as that with which 
the avalanche descends to the valley beneath. The conservation 
of energies arising out of conscious experiences must be by the 
same entity, or it is no true conservation, and nature but a chapter 
of chaotic accidents. 

"Every entity in the Universe," says the Secret Doctrine, "either 
is, was, or prepares to become a man ; " thus throwing the light of 
the East upon the half-understood and but half-accepted evolu- 
tionary hypotheses of Western science. Every atom, every ele- 
mental ensouling the humblest lichen, every hierarchal host 
embodied in the lowest mineral form of which we can conceive, — 
each and all are on their way to manhood, and thence to godhood, 
in a Universe which is -but an infinite becoming. Science recog- 
nizes the fact that each separate cell of the human, or of any other 
organic body, is a life, with its own life-history on its own plane of 
conscious experiences. Eastern wisdom concurs, and further 
declares that every atom is a life, and that atomic choice, as seen 
in so-called chemical "affinities," is a display of consciousness 
which evolution and conscious conservation will some day lift to 
the plane of self-consciousness — and a man will have become ! In 






REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. IO7 

all the stupendous process, no other entity has ever trespassed upon 
the sacred, indestructible area of a centre of consciousness thus 
differentiated within the Whole ; and, in all the unthinkable aeons 
of conscious experiences yet to come, never can so trespass. That 
which has entered the domain of manifested life, the great Cycle 
of Necessity, can only disappear when all manifested being becomes 
again Non-Being — returns to enter those eternally subjective 
realms in which it had its origin. 

But enough of philosophical generalizations. Let us now seek 
for specific proof that Reincarnation is the general law of nature 
and the very process of evolution, as has been asserted. At the 
beginnings of organic life, evidence is at once available ; for, 
whether in the vegetable or animal kingdom, there can be no 
rational cause for ova, almost identical in form and absolutely so 
in molecular construction — so far as microscope or molecular 
physics can determine — diverging, the one into the form of a deli- 
cate fern, the other into that of the giant Sequoia ; for this devel- 
oping into the canine, that, into the human form. The general 
forces of nature brought to bear upon each ovum are the same; 
the matter of which the form is constructed is absolutely identical. 
And the cells, even, of which each body is built up, when their 
consciousness is analyzed, are found to be almost infinitely below 
that of the entity of which materialism fancies they are the creator. 
The thinking, reasoning, willing, philosophising human soul, 
being assumed to be the product or sum of the consciousness of 
cells so far beneath it, is a case of the effect being assumed to be 
greater than the cause — of the stream rising higher than its source 
— with a vengeance ! No ; there has been an inner energy guiding 
and controlling the form-building; or, under the general, imper- 
sonal forces of nature, divergence would have been impossible. 
This inner entity is, therefore, no more dependent upon the body 
for its existence than is the swallow upon the nest which it likewise 
constructs for the purpose of temporary habitation. There is no 
possible reason for the origin and subsequent repetition of form, 
except the return to material existence of an entity which has 
rebuilt the old form, and now proceeds to its evolutionary task of 
imperceptibly modifying that form to afford expression for its 
slowly widening conscious area. There is also no possible explan- 
ation for any subsequent evolutionary modification, except as the 
result of the energy of an inner entity thus seeking a vehicle for 
the more perfect expression of its conserved consciousness. 

Hearken to the overwhelming testimony of nature ! In the 
vegetable kingdom, every rebuilding of the same form, flowering, 
and leafage of the plant from root, rhizome, bulb, or seed, is 
absolutely unimpeachable evidence that the same entity has 
returned, as cycle or season has afforded opportunity. And these 
can only afford opportunity ; they have no more to do with the 
actual repetition of form, with the wonderful divergent which 
follows the fructification of the germ cell, than has the ocea i with 
the intelligence which directs the ships from port to port acr )ss its 
wastes of water. 

The seeds or bulbs are identical in the material elements ent 'ring 



108 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

into their construction; the same soil receives them; the same 
sun warms them; identical showers moisten them; they breathe a 
common atmosphere, — all the external forces of nature which play 
upon them are absolutely identical. If there were no inner force, 
no centre of modifying energy within, then would all form not only 
be identical, but form itself be inconceivable. It is upon the stable, 
unvarying action of the forces of nature composing our external 
environment that all physical sciences depend; that enables man 
to forecast his future, to sow in its season the grain,, and to con- 
struct all that marvelous domain which we contra-distinguish from 
nature when we term it Art. Then how absurdly illogical, how 
utterly unreasonable, it is to attribute to these outer common forces 
of nature, upon whose stable, unvarying action our very material 
existence depends, the source of that higher, conscious energy 
which compels such infinite variation in the very face of and in 
opposition to these lower forces of nature. In the variation thus 
in opposition to the material forces of this plane, we are shown the 
superiority of the inner force; in the repetition of the same form 
and foliage, we are taught that the forces of this inner one are also 
stable and unvarying action, and which renders thus additionally 
sure the conservation of consciousness stored upon these planes. 
All existence proceeds under the law of alternating objective and 
subjective cycles — of day and night, of sleeping and waking, of 
action and re-action — and to this law, men, atoms, and gods alike 
bow. And the plant, that gave no evidence in the withered root 
or bulb that the beautiful foliage and coloring of last year lay hid- 
den in the ugly shriveled mass, has but again reached the objective 
arc of its existence — has passed through its arc of apparent non-exist- 
ence, without losing one iota of those distinguishing characteristics 
which made it a denizen of a definite genus, family, and species. 

Passing to the animal kingdom, we find the evidence of an inner, 
controlling, reincarnating entity still more pronounced. In the 
metamorphosis of insects, in that wonderful transformation of the 
form and functions by which the repulsive caterpillar emerges as 
the beautiful butterfly, without even having abandoned the old 
material vestment, is to be found the most positive evidence that 
an inner, independent entity has rebuilt the old molecules into the 
new form. Every such transformation is the law of reincarnation 
or re-embodiment exemplified before our very eyes, as though na- 
ture were determined we should not misinterpret her design nor 
mistake her methods. The metempsychosis of larvae into pupae and 
perfect insects is just as wonderful, just as incomprehensible, as is 
the metempsychosis or transmigration of the old butterfly entity 
through its subjective arc of seeming annihilation. That accom- 
plished before our vision is just as subjective as that which has es- 
caped our ken; the metamorphosis of pupae into insect being ac- 
complished in an entire absence of that food supply which is so 
necessary to the scientific conception of the creation of the energy 
necessary for molecular change. We are as entirely unable to ex- 
plain the one as the other, and the real entity about which the 
form is builded is just as hidden from us in its objective transfor- 
mation as in its subjective metempsychosis. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 109 

It is only by the continuous widening of consciousness by re- 
peated — almost endless — re-embodiments of consciousness-conserv- 
ing entities that evolution becomes possible. It is only thus that 
the human kingdom is slowly attained, and self-consciousness, the 
apparent object of all evolutionary effort, conquered. The method 
of nature seems to be, briefly, this : 

An automatic centre of consciousness differentiates within the 
Absolute ; passes by involution, or the reverse facet of evolution, 
through the elemental into the very depths of the mineral king- 
dom ; adds to its primal, atomic consciousness that of molecular 
association ; rises to the vegetable kingdom, widens its conscious 
area by expression in all the wilderness of forms in this kingdom; 
becomes too great by virtue of this widening to longer find a fitting 
vehicle here, and is compelled by the great evolutionary wave to 
seek the animal kingdom; widens or adds to its consciousness 
again, until it at last reaches the human-animal plane, that of the 
beginnings of self-consciousness, and thus becomes a fitting vehicle 
to afford expression for the human soul. Every step in this ascent 
of the ladder of being, though so easily pointed out, has occupied 
aeons of time, and not one instant during the unthinkable periods 
of this becoming has it lost the identity stamped upon it at the 
dawn of differentiation by that unknowable, incomprehensible 
Wisdom and Power, of which we grope for a conception when we 
name it, in words which have for finite minds no real meaning, the 
CAUSELESS CAUSE ! There has been a steady progress from 
atom to man, and will be from man to god. Reincarnation, plus 
re-embodiment, is the key, and the only rational key, to the whole 
awe-inspiring process. 

Thus has man come upon this stage of life; in this grand law 
may we read the history of his wonderful past and the prophecy of 
his glorious future. In his every relation to his environment, 
whether mental, physical, or spiritual, may be seen the workings 
of the law by which he has attained to his present state, and at a 
few of these evidences, especially along philosophical and ethical 
lines, we must now briefly glance. 

We have seen that the conservation of force includes that of con- 
sciousness, and therefore the conservation of our sense conscious- 
ness,— of the thoughts, emotions, feelings, volitions, and sensations 
of our daily existence. All of these, as science truly teaches, are 
manifestations of energy, requiring the transferring of the prod- 
ucts of that energy to some stable centre or plane, if they are 
really conserved and the universal law not violated. That the law 
is not violated, that the energies of a human life are not dissipated 
at death, the differences in human character amply testify. There 
is nothing in the environment of one brief life to cause or account 
for the infinite diversity in character which is manifested in the 
world to-day. Each such character is the product of an almost in- 
finite past; and it is this past, and not the impersonal environment 
which acts and reacts upon all beings alike, which has caused this 
difference. The product of sense consciousness, thus stored uncon- 
sciously, constitutes character; and is carried forward life after life 
as a basis upon which and to which the energies generated anew 



HO THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

by the sense-consciousness and other experiences of each life are 
to be added. But, in order to avoid any appearance of begging 
the question, the present examination will be confined first and 
chiefly to the evidences of reincarnation which attend birth ; 
leaving, for briefer consideration, all the vast array of proofs pro- 
vided by a survey of the entire human life. 

At the entrance upon this sphere of existence by a human soul, 
if that soul be a new creation as taught by Christianity, or the 
mere bundle of " properties " of matter, capable of experiencing 
agony or joy, as Materialism claims, we are confronted with the 
gravest and most grievous questions of justice and injustice which 
surround this entrance, and of which the new-born soul. is either the 
perfectly innocent victim or the unmeriting recipient. This, too, 
upon both the mental and physical planes. Upon the latter, we have 
one child born heir to the British throne; another to Hottentot or 
Bushmen parentage; one soul comes to gentle, pure, refined pa- 
rents; another to brutal, diseased, drunken, or criminal ones — 
inoculated with both vice and disease by its very mother's milk! 
One emerges from the womb crippled or deformed; another inher- 
its all the graces of both form and feature. 

Mentally, the injustice is even more appalling. One child is 
born a genius; another an idiot; one inherits the most lovable dis- 
position; another wears the gallow's brand stamped upon his brow 
from birth. Justice demands that each soul should have equal 
opportunities, equal mental and physical capacities at birth, 
if it be a new soul, whatever inequalities may attend a future in 
which it does have some choice. If, in choosing these natal and 
ante-natal conditions, it has had absolutely no voice — as must be 
the case if it has never been on earth before — then is the law of 
cause and effect an idle fancy arising in the mind of the scien- 
tist, and justice an idea to be dreamed of by man, the creature, 
but denied to Nature, the Creator! another illustration of the folly 
of attributing to the effect qualities which are not equally present in 
the cause. The very conception of justice, faint and perverted as 
it too often is, which arises in men's minds, is due — cannot but be 
due — to that perfect and inviolable justice which holds the 
entire Universe in its perfect control, and under which man's being, 
in common with every manifestation of life or energy, proceeds. 
The one-birth theorist, whatever his belief or disbelief in other 
directions, assigns all these cases of monstrous injustice to the 
" accident of birth." He who believes in a god, omniscient and 
omnipotent, must attribute to that god, if all-wise and all-power- 
ful, an indifference and cruelty against which his own mind would 
revolt if not benumbed by an abject fear of this god whom he thus 
unconsciously blasphemes. He who bases his faith upon the 
" properties-of-matter " theory of the soul, must admit that in that 
case nature is devilish and cruel, while both, as has been pointed 
out, with the strangest inconsistency make the created greater 
than the Creator — the effect greater than the cause — a thing we 
might forgive the theologian, but hardly the scientist or philos- 
opher! For, if man be the product of material evolution alone, 
of " blind force taking the direction of the least resistance/' if there 






REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. Ill 

be no consciousness hidden within the subjective realms of nature 
greater than that which is thus apparently the result of physical 
evolution, if man indeed represents the highest consciousness in the 
scale of life on this planet, then does his mind, as having arisen out 
of the play of " blind, unconscious force thus taking the direction 
of least resistance," make the effect — the created, self-conscious 
man — infinitely greater than the cause, the unconscious, blind 
force which has called him into existence ! And if a creator be 
assumed, yet Reincarnation denied, then is that omniscient, 
omnipotent creator, the cause, far below the effect, man, in his con- 
ceptions of justice, to say nothing of those of mercy or compassion! 
The fact that man can recognize the injustice of these birth 
inequalities shows that the idea of justice is an attribute of the 
divinity in nature, and that any seeming injustice must be 
explained by a deeper inquiry of nature as to her methods. 

This deeper, more philosophical conception required to explain 
the seemingly unjust inequalities which thus accompany the soul 
in its passage through the gates of life to the material, objective, 
or sensuous arc of its cycle of existence, is fully met by the recogni- 
tion of the all-embracing law of re-embodiment. There is no 
problem, either in physical, moral, or mental environment or 
limitations, which does not yield to the touch of this universal 
solvent. By its means we perceive that such inequalities are but 
each soul's coming to its own heritage, under the action of the law 
of cause and effect. The energies of its past lives on earth have 
been conserved, and now irresistibly draw it where these can best 
be displayed in the new life. Whether these have been virtuous or 
vicious, noble or ignoble, through all the infinite variations in 
character or motive, the law acts unerringly — is incapable of 
erring. It is but mental or psychic force, taking the direction 
of the least resistance, under the action of the same law -which 
science has recognized as controlling molecular physics on the 
plane below. Each soul comes to its own, so far, at least, as 
physical parents can afford a fitting vehicle. For, being the 
product of many lives, the whole of its conscious area cannot be 
expressed in any one body, nor in any one life on earth. There- 
fore, following the line of least resistance — which is but that of 
greatest attraction — it comes to those parents presenting the 
greatest sum of attractive energy. It may rise far above, or fall 
equally far below, every conceivable possibility of merely physical 
heredity in those potencies which it inherits from its own past 
alone. Thus, in the case of mathematical, poetical, musical, or 
other forms of so-called genius, we perceive but a soul which, 
having cultivated these faculties through, perhaps, many lives, 
brings them over from its own conscious past. Physical heredity 
utterly fails to account for these cases of genius — for a Shake- 
speare, "rising out of the muddy stream of an illiterate tenant- 
farming and petty-trading Warwickshire family"; for a musical 
prodigy — a " Blind Tom," born of ignorant slave parentage ; for a 
mathematical wonder — a Zerah Colburn, springing from Missouri 
clod-hoppers ; for a Napoleon, bred from a humble camp follower ; 
and so on, almost infinitely. Indeed, physical heredity fails to 



112 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

rationally account for any difference in that mental or moral 
capacity which separates man from man, not only at birth, but 
throughout his subsequent life. And the reverse of genius — the 
stupid sons of wise parents — also completely violates the law of 
conservation of force as displayed in merely physical heredity. 
There is no hypothesis, no court of appeal from these perplexing, 
heart-rending injustices and inequalities which even precede actual 
physical birth, and follow like an avenging Nemesis the soul 
throughout all its subsequent life, unless we admit the fact of 
reincarnation and recognize that each soul comes to its own ; 
that all the infinite modifications of character exhibited by man- 
kind to-day are the result of an equally infinite modification by 
conscious experiences in past lives. 

To briefly sum up : It has been shown that matter, force, and 
consciousness are equally indestructible and eternally associated ; 
that the presence of one proves that of all ; and the conservation 
of one necessitates the conservation of all. We have seen that the 
human soul, because of the impossibility of dissociating these 
hypostases of the Absolute, is a centre of substance, force, and 
consciousness, individualized within and proceeding from these 
Aspects of the Absolute. Without any attempt to explain Why or 
How this occurred in the first instance — for the finite can never 
hope to measure or contain the Infinite — its subsequent evolution- 
ary modifications have been shown to be perfectly intelligible by 
the law of re-embodiment or reincarnation ; that human or any 
other existence can be rationally explained in no other way ; that 
here in the clamor and chaos of seeming injustice, where the heart 
fails and the intellect draws back with dread, this LAW becomes 
a magician's wand to conjure away the dreadful night-mare of sor- 
row and despair — becomes the very voice of Nature itself, calling 
across the abysses of intellectual chaos " Let there be LIGHT ! " 
and there IS light. 

We have seen the law foreshadowed in the mineral kingdom, 
exemplified in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, demonstrated 
in the human kingdom ! We have seen that the scientific general- 
izations of force-conservation and the indestructibility of matter 
contain it ; that justice absolutely requires it ; that immortality 
demands it ; that in it is the only sure and scientific basis for 
human ethics. It is the great Revealer of the Past ; the glorious 
Prophet of the Future. Nothing but soul-blindness can prevent 
its instant recognition. We find ourselves here now ; we know 
that we exist. Are we so vain, so stupid, as to suppose that that 
which Nature has done she cannot repeat ; that, having been power- 
ful enough to bring us upon this plane of existence once, she is un- 
able to do so again ? Nay ; let us bow down in the recesses of our 
inmost hearts before the great compassionate Mother, accepting the 
grand truth which she so patiently endeavors to teach us, that 
through the illusory gates of life and death we have come from 
an infinite, conscious past ; that by means of these same portals, 
now so dreaded, we may pass on to an infinitely glorious, happy, 
and ^//"-conscious future. So shall our hearts thrill and fill with 
sympathy for our fellow-men ; so shall the petty cares, ambitions, 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 113 

and selfishness of this life disappear in the warmth of the light 
of the higher knowledge ; so shall we work tranquilly, patiently 
on, unterrified by death, and O ! far surpassing this, undismayed 
by Life ! 



THEOSOPHY AND MODERN SOCIAL PROBLEMS. 



Its Claim that Social Evils have their Roots in Mental 
Faults, and that in Addition to Legislative, Educa- 
tional, and Social Improvements, the Truths and 
Laws of Being must be Taught for the Funda- 
mental Regeneration of Society, and the 
Recognition of Karma and Reincarnation 
must be Made the Basis of Concerted 
Public as well as Private Efforts. 



BY ANNIE BESANT. 



I have to speak to you on Theosophy and modern social prob- 
lems. It is claimed that social evils have their roots in mental faults, 
and that in addition to legislative, educational, and social improve- 
ments, the truths and laws of being must be taught for the funda- 
mental regeneration of society, and the recognition of Karma and 
Re-incarnation must be made the basis of concerted public as well 
as of private efforts. 

The subject is one which seems to take us on to a different level 
of thought from those with which we have been occupied yesterday 
and to-day. We are now coming down, as it were, to the employ- 
ment of more material forms of energy, coming down to deal with 
the transitory, with the impermanent, with the facts rather than 
with the cause. Distinctly lower work ; distinctly less productive 
of results ; distinctly to be dealt with in other fashion than those 
higher themes to which our thoughts have been turned. And I 
who have spent so many years of life in dealing with these prob- 
lems on the material plane, I who have given so much of time and 
of thought to the effort to bring some remedy to the social ills of 
man, I take it to be my duty at the outset of this brief statement to 
bear witness founded upon knowledge that the employment of one 
hour in spiritual energy for the good of man works a hundred-fold 
more good than years of labor employed on the material plane. 
Spiritual energy, in truth, does not find its expression on the plat- 
form. Spiritual energy can scarcely translate itself by the slow 
process of intellectual thought and speech. And yet it seems to 
me that even by the vehicle of intellect and of language you must 
have got from our Indian brother some impulse from those higher 
planes, some recognition of higher force, than those we are wont to 
deal with in our modern and civilized life. Yet inasmuch as we 
live in matter as well as in spirit, inasmuch as our work, at least 
for the less developed of us, lies here and not over there, it is fitting 



114 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

that in this Congress some word should be said of the lower plane 
of life, and, even while we recognize its inferior position, we have 
no right to leave it until the spirit within us has grown to know its 
energy and to give itself in nobler fashion for the good of Man. 

Turning, then, to this aspect of our work, we shall strive to 
apply to it the philosophy that we have learned — strive to apply 
that philosophy in order that we may waste as little effort as may 
be wasted by applying mere palliatives instead of cures, by dealing 
entirely with effects instead of causes. For there is a necessary 
sequence of effects, a sequence which includes ail on the material 
plane, and that sequence is, first, thought ; and then from the 
thought, generation of the image on the astral ; then from the 
astral, the precipitation of the image into action. No material 
effort to act takes place without those preceding stages, and it is 
only because our eyes are blinded that we lay so much stress on 
the act and neglect the causes that have preceded. And the value 
of Theosophy in dealing with social problems is that this sequence is 
understood and recognized, so that however much we may energize 
on the material plane, however much we may strive to bring pal- 
liatives to the wounded and the maimed in life's struggles, still the 
Theosophist can never forget that these are but palliatives, they 
are not cures ; and that the cure must rise upward to the mental 
generating cause and not confine itself merely to the final crystal- 
lization of the effect. 

That that is so, we very easily understand when we cast our 
glance over the history of the past. If to-day amongst ourselves 
the social conscience is beginning to awaken, if to-day among some 
civilized people social compunction is beginning to show itself, if 
instead of the old reply of Cain, falling from the lips of modern 
civilization, " Am I my brother's keeper ?" there is beginning to 
fall from the lips of some men and women at least the cry " Let 
me help wherever I am strong and serve wherever there is need," 
if such words are beginning to ring through modern society, if men 
and women are beginning to give themselves for humanity, it is 
because the other stages have gone before. It is because the great 
Thinker has sketched the mighty ideal ; it is because the seer has 
seen a vision, has dreamed a dream and spoken out his dream to 
men, and though in his own generation denounced as visionary, 
though in his own generation branded as Utopian, the Utopias of 
to-day are the realities of the future, and without the dream and 
the ideal, what we falsely call the real could never be. 

Now, legislation deals with acts. Our brother Judge has truly 
said that as Theosophists we have nought to do with legislation. 
Dealing with it, however, as finding ourselves karmically placed in 
special countries and in special social environments, we realize that 
these legislative changes that are proposed can only be the out- 
come of previous mental changes in the minds of those who have 
lived a life in society. The law ought to be the final expression 
of convinced intellectual opinion. It ought to be the expression 
of the wisest and best incorporated in legislative shape. That is 
law, as it were, from the ideal standpoint, different enough from 
too many of the laws of to-day, but, as Brother Judge also truly 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 115 

said, we have plenty of laws on our statute books. Both you in 
your land and I in mine know of laws which, if put into practice, 
would change the very face of society, especially perhaps in our 
ancient English legislation. You have a mass of enactment which, 
fairly carried out, justly administered, righteously executed, would 
make our terrible poverty impossible and the misery of our great 
cities only a memory of the Past. 

Unhappily, the law has only come into being as the outcome of 
a few enlightened consciences, and the minds of the majority of 
men have not yet passed through the stages which those minds 
have passed through in which first the thought of the new laws 
took form. In those minds the thought first took form ; then on 
the astral, the image appeared ; and this began to influence all the 
minds around it, and finally, out of that, took birth and action. 

Let me take as an illustration a kind of law familiar enough to 
me, of which I know at once the theoretical value and the practical 
uselessness. I mean the law that we have on our statute books 
across the sea, against various forms of sweating. If those laws 
were carried out, the sweating which is now carried on in London 
— and I speak of London rather than of New York, although I have 
seen in your tenement houses in New York sweating as disgrace- 
ful and as scandalous as any I have seen in my own land — I know 
that there in London we have laws which, if rightly administered, 
would make the worst of this sweating impossible. What is the 
fact ? That the law is evaded ; that the sweating goes on despite 
the law, just as though the law had no existence ; that the very 
persons who are sweated by the pressure around them are co- 
operators and accomplices in the evasion of the law. We denounce 
the sweater, we hold him up to public reprobation, we brand him 
as outcast, we draw away our garments lest they should be soiled 
by the touching. That on the plane of illusion. And what on the 
plane of causes ? Every man and every woman who in their daily 
life and daily thought are willing to take more than they give, de- 
sire to grasp more than they yield to their fellows, count every 
service rendered as great and see every service given to them as 
small, who live upon their neighbors without compunction, who 
use their strength of brain or position in order that they may 
profit while the weaker are trampled under foot, who buy clothing 
that they know is sold at a price only rendered possible by the 
payment of wages to the women wage-earners which have to be 
increased by the sale of those women in the streets — every such 
man and woman is sweater at heart, every such man and woman 
is a cause which prevents the operation of the law, for the law is 
a dead thing while your thoughts are living potencies, and it is 
idle to denounce the one who does for you what in your hearts 
you desire, and to make the sweater outcast in a society while he 
only exists because your thoughts and mine have incarnated in 
form so foul. 

And so with education. Education can do more than legisla- 
tion, for legislation is only dealing with the plane of action, 
whereas education goes farther inward and deals with the plane of 
mind. But what mind ? The lower mind alone. And even then, 



Il6 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

not the lower mind at its best, but the lower mind as it may be 
most easily turned into an instrument for struggle and the gaining 
of advantage over one's neighbor. For the whole of the educa- 
tional system is founded on the idea that the child is to be trained 
into a successful man, and success on our modern lips does not 
mean success in service. It means success in self-aggrandizement, 
so that if you take one of the favorite books given as a prize in our 
English schools, you will find it a book called " Self-Help," and if 
you read the book "Self-Help," you will find that it is full of the 
stories of self-made men, so that the rather caustic remark arises 
in the mind when looking at the self-made man — proud and pom- 
pous and self-opinionated — well, at least it is some consolation to 
find that he has made himself, because he would not be a credit to 
any one else. 

If education is to be real, you must change your system ; you 
must put a stop to, competition in the school ; you must no longer 
set child against child in the struggle ; you must give up the 
system of making the prize the symbol of victory over others, and 
the pride of the successful student that so many of his comrades 
are behind him and not in front. The whole thing is false, fitted 
only for a society which takes the law of the survival of the fittest 
which belongs to the beasts in the jungle instead of that law of 
self-abnegation by which only the soul of man can rise. So, when 
the child comes into your hands with its outer envelope ductile, 
with its nervous system plastic, the soul of the child has scarce yet 
got grip on its outer envelopment, and the contact is not yet com- 
plete between the thinker and its vehicle, what do you do with 
your modern education ? You distort the outer vehicle that the 
soul is to use. You plant upon that fertile soil the evil seeds of 
competition, of desire for triumph, of wish to succeed at the cost 
of others ; so that every child in your class is glad when the pupil 
above him stumbles, because it brings him nearer to the top of the 
class and to stand as the successful child when the examiner shall 
come round. Rather teach your children that the child who learns 
most quickly should be the helper of the child who learns most 
slowly. That every power of brain and body is to be given for the 
helping of others, and not for dominance. That is the duty to the 
souls that come into the hands of the teachers, and they ill per- 
form their sublime mission who try to dwarf and stunt the habita- 
tion that the soul has to dwell in. 

Socially also when we come to deal with social improvements, 
we are coming to a question in which our philosophy applied to 
modern life has in truth some words to say. 

We cannot deny from the scientific standpoint the importance 
of the re-action of the environment on the individual. It is enor- 
mously exaggerated, preposterously exaggerated ; for where a 
soul is strong and experienced, no environment can keep it back 
and no disadvantage can check its course, but on weaker souls, on 
the developing mind, in man, the higher mind, what is the result of 
the conditions that in our previous thinkings we have brought out 
in society ? Those of you who followed the philosophy of the 
Secret Doctrine, will be aware that in the long evolution of humanity 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 117 

different races come to. birth and succeed each other on the surface 
of our globe, that with the evolution of each race there is also the 
evolution of a certain aspect of consciousness in Man, so that as the 
races are reckoned upward in their climbing fresh aspects of con- 
sciousness become manifested in the course of this evolution. 

To-day, according to Theosophical doctrine, we stand in the 
fifth race that has occupied the globe, and, comparing the race with 
the aspect of consciousness which should be developing, we find the 
corresponding principle of consciousness is that of Manas, or the 
thinker, that is to say, that in the fifth race the powers of the 
Thinker find greater expression than in the race that went before, 
and that as a corresponding point is reached in the evolution of 
the fifth race, the development of the mind will reach a higher 
point than that which it touched in the corresponding period of the 
fourth. Manas, the mind, thus beginning to manifest itself, lies at 
the root of the enormous intellectual development of the day, but 
that development should be general not partial, not confined to the 
few but spread over the many ; so that humanity, passing upward 
collectively in this fifth race, should develop collectively the higher 
intellectual faculty, and so lay the foundation upon which the next 
stage may be built, from which the next rung of the ladder may be 
mounted. 

Our civilization is one-sided in its development. Over-culture 
and over-refinement, for it is only superficial ; under-education and 
under-refinement, on the other. The refined class, so proud of 
itself that it hedges itself round with a wall of exclusiveness as 
though the refinement, if it were real, could be scratched off by a 
little friction with the outer world. In truth, if it is only a veneer 
put over the surface of base material, then it is well to avoid the 
scratching, for the scratching may show the poor material that lies 
behind it. 

But if, as it ought to be, the outer man is to be the expression of 
the inner ; if the graces of manner and the beauty of phrase are but 
the expression of the soul veiling itself in the form of language or 
the form of gesture, such refinement cannot be done away with ; 
such refinement cannot be rendered commonplace by use ; and it 
exists not that the refined person may stand aside, but that he may 
go out and spread the grace of his presence in the world, so 
that others may see in him the reflection of the soul, and be 
stirred by the beauty of the reflection to seek that light which lies 
beyond. 

Therefore it is that when we are dealing with the subject from 
this standpoint, we begin to understand what, if I may use a word 
drawn from our poor language, may be called the " policy " of the 
great teachers of men in dealing with the present phase of devel- 
opment in the world. That great man whom I quoted yesterday, 
many of whose letters were published by Mr. Sinnett in the Occult 
World, dealing with problems of Western science and sending a 
message to those who expected help for that science from them, 
answered, " Your science has no claim on us till it allies itself with 
philanthropy," and he went on to explain that scientific knowledge 
as such was to them a matter of indifference where it did not 



Il8 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

contribute to the helping of man, to the raising, to the purifying, to 
the bettering of society ; and so it is that brotherhood must be 
gained before further knowledge will be given ; that the will to use 
for service must precede any assistance in the gaining of the intel- 
lectual knowledge. For you might as well remain ignorant, nay, 
almost better, than to remain unloving, for a civilized cruelty is 
worse than the cruelty of the savage, and the brutality of those 
who know better is more cruel than that of the brute, which shows 
its nature and has not the stimulus of mind to refine its malice. 

We have in our midst slums, fearful places where men and women 
starve, putrify, and perish. What is the result of a slum upon the 
nation? Not only on the individual souls whose Karma leads them 
to that foul surrounding, but what shall we find our philosophy 
teaches us when we come to deal with the slum regarded from the 
standpoint of the nation ? 

For, in these legislative and educational and social environ- 
ments, we now into the midst of them thus roughly described 
bring the lesson of our philosophy, and we have seen that, as re- 
gards legislation, the will, to be just must precede the law which is 
only the formulation of the maxim. That in education the child 
should be dealt with as an evolving soul, with its faculties to be 
drawn out and assisted in the conquest of the matter that veils it, 
so that everything should work for this evolution of the soul. 
What shall we learn as regards the social environment? What 
bearing have Karma and Re-incarnation on this pressing question 
of modern times ? 

To regenerate needs wisdom ; to regenerate needs a sound 
philosophy. You may change everything to-morrow by a sudden 
act, but the day after will find you facing the same difficulties if 
the root of the evil has not been touched. So that when we are 
dealing with legislative change, with educational change, with 
change in the direction of greater justice, that which H. P. 
Blavatsky once called the Socialism of Love, and not of hatred, the 
socialism that gives instead of the socialism that takes, when we 
begin to deal with that, what bearing has Karma on the subject, 
what teaching has Re-incarnation as to the methods we should 
use ? Karma makes you understand that that which exists in the 
slum is the materialization of past selfishness, past greed, past 
desire for dominance, past denial of the brotherhood of man. 
That that slum is the inevitable result of the Past. If the Past was, 
the Present must be ; and it's no use throwing the blame on one 
and another living here to-day. No good can come of abusing 
this class or that class, because in this wretchedness and social 
wrong we are all guilty of our brother's blood ; we all share in the 
common fault. The slum-dweller and the prince, the middle-class 
man and the nobleman, they have all cooperated in the Past to 
make the slum. It is the outcome of their own ignorance, their 
own folly, and their own crime. Let them, then, not waste time in 
abusing each other ; let them not throw away the chance of repar- 
ation by perpetuating the hatred out of which the slum has grown. 
Said the Buddha, " Hatred ceases not by hatred at any time; 
hatred ceases by love." And no amount of attack, no amount of 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 119 

denunciation, no wild words of passion or of anger, will heal our 
social ills. 

Better join hands on either side with rich and poor, prince and 
pauper. Let us say, "Brothers, we have sinned together in the 
past, we will atone together in the present." We do not want to 
separate the responsibility ; it is ours, for we are all the sons of 
men. 

And Re-incarnation will tell us something more. It will explain 
to us why, as I said just now, the slum is a national concern. Souls 
that are seeking Re-incarnation are drawn to the environment for 
which they are fitted. Souls carrying with them vicious and idle 
and malicious tendencies will be born to fathers and mothers who 
manifest vices of similar character, and who have poisoned the 
material of their own bodies, and so render them fit for the vibra- 
tions of evil that come from the degraded soul. If you cast into 
the slums those who are already miserable and degraded, and 
because they are miserable need most help, and because they are 
degraded need most your brotherly love, you are perpetuating 
conditions for the incarnations of the future the worst of the souls 
that are seeking a fleshly habitation. You are erecting already 
houses for the tenants who are seeking such dwellings, and who 
will move in — crowd in — and take possession of that which suits 
them for the manifestation of the evil tendencies, the evil passions 
they have fostered in their own past, and so your nation will 
become a focus for contracting all evils and faults. Your nation 
will become a centre of attraction for those souls whose citizenship 
will be mischievous, and who will be forces for disintegration and 
not for good. 

Do you think that the state of a people matters not ? Every 
nation builds up characters and impresses them on the bodies, as 
it were, of its people, suitable for different classes of re-incarnating 
souls ; by physical and astral heredity, bodies are builded which 
are suitable for the manifestation of certain types of intellectual 
and spiritual energy. You may have a nation whose very bodies 
are, as it were, tabernacles in which the most advanced Egos seek- 
ing incarnation will find their way, because there is the physical 
instrument which will respond most delicately to the most subtle 
vibration ; and so in this fashion a nation builds its future by at- 
tracting either the nobler or the baser from the crowds of souls 
that seek this fleshly dwelling. What, then, may a nation be ? 
We may perhaps give some form to our ideal if we think what a 
nation has been in the past. 

In these discussions in our Theosophical Congress, we have 
heard much of India, much of Indian wisdom, much of Indian 
spirituality, much of praise for Indian thought and admiration of 
Indian past. Do you know, do you ever dream, when you think 
of the India of to-day, what the India of the Past has been and 
what the India of the future I hope may be again — India not as 
you know her to-day, trampled under the foot of the Indian gov- 
ernment, a materialistic nation to the heart, with her foot on the 
neck of the spiritual mother of the nations. Not from that can you 
judge of India. Not from her degradation, but her ancient glory. 



120 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

She is conquered because she allowed herself to be conquered from 
within, and when from within the conquest has been made, the 
outer view may well come in and give it shape. For out of 
spiritual pride and spiritual selfishness grew the degradation of 
India, until she who once led the world was no longer able to 
stand in the front But the India of the past — Ah, that was differ- 
ent ! When her Gods came down as Avatars, and her Rishis made 
the grandest literature that has grown up in the past or present, so 
that our nations have been inspired by it — that literature written 
in the language of the Gods. They who trained their people and 
led them step by step along the path of knowledge, when the 
Brahmins were those whose bodies were fit dwelling for the most 
highly evolved souls, and even the name of Brahmin meant spirit- 
ual teacher, and therefore the rightful guide and instructor of 
men. That is what a nation may be when a spiritual ideal is su- 
preme, and the working out of this by the nation makes bodies 
that are able to answer to the most delicate vibrations of the high- 
est of souls. 

Shall that be the ideal of your American nation, or will you 
turn aside to your Western thought ? Will you have your material 
wealth, will you take gold instead of wisdom, and mere material 
triumph instead of the knowledge of the soul ? You may do it as 
you will, for every nation's fate is in its own hands. Yours the 
choice, and none other can choose for you what the future of the 
American nation shall be. Shall it be material? Is it the material 
that you need ? Rather lessen your material wants and give more 
thought to the evolution of your material energies. Spend less 
time in the body, more time in the soul. Give less thought to the 
acquirement of position and of wealth, more thought to the growth 
of the Spirit and the evolution of the purely human within you, 
and then even greater than the nations of the past the nations of 
the future may be, — nobler even than the realities of the past the 
realities of the future shall become ; and if you would have the 
treasure you must pay the price, and the price is the recognition 
of the supremacy of the spirit, and the utterly inferior and transi- 
tory nature of that body of which we make so much. 
Adjourned until afternoon at three. 

FIFTH SESSION, SATURDAY AFTERNOON AT 3 O'CLOCK. 

Mr. Judge — The session of the Congress this evening will be 
in the Hall of Washington at 8 o'clock to present Theosophy to 
the Parliament of Religions ; but, as announced this morning, the 
officers of the Parliament in recognition of the great success of our 
meetings having assigned us to the same Hall of Washington for 
an extra meeting, we will there on Sunday night have further 
discussions. That will in fact close all the meetings of the Theo- 
sophical Society in the Parliament of Religions. Dr. Buck will 
now address you. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 



THEOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 



Theosophy Hostile to Science only when Materialistic, 

when it Repudiates all Spheres and Processes other 

than Physical, or Denies the Reality of Soul 

and Spirit and the Unseen Universe. 



dr. j. D. BUCK. 



The word Science, like the word Religion and the word Philo- 
sophy, necessarily conveys to different minds different meanings. 
There has grown up in what we call the Western world a super- 
structure without form, though not altogether void, that it would 
be as difficult to define as the generic term religion. This super- 
structure claims to exercise as much authority over the current 
thought of the age as does religion, if not more. It will therefore 
be pertinent to our line of thought this afternoon to inquire in 
what sense the Western world uses and applies the word science, 
and in what sense those who advocate what we call Theosophy use 
this word "science." 

A very great misapprehension rests upon the minds of the 
Western world, including the scientists, and that is, that what we 
call science is a thing of very recent date ; that the olden times had 
superstition, that men had what is known as religion, that men 
speculated a great deal into the nature of things and had some 
philosophy ; but science — O, science is a thing of the present times, 
a new thing. It would be impossible for me to convince you of 
the misapprehension that lies in any such suggestion this afternoon, 
in the brief time that is allotted to me to speak upon this subject. 
But nothing would be easier than to convince any candid individ- 
ual, any reasoning mind, that no greater mistake could possibly 
be made than to suppose that what in the strictest sense is called 
science is not a thing of the distant past, and chat the distant ages, 
as we call them, did not possess a science just as demonstrable as 
that which we call science to-day. 

There was a difference in the application of this science in the 
olden time from that method by which it is applied to-day, and 
that difference was well represented to you this morning by Prof. 
Chakravarti and Annie Besant. 

Now, in order to be perfectly just and fair, I will take two or 
three of the later utterances — comparatively late utterances — of 
one of the leaders of modern science, in order to show what he 
defines as the basis and the method of what we call science in the 
West. I recite from an essay published quite a number of years 
ago by Prof. Huxley, entitled " A half century of science/' In this 
he says : 

"The object of science is the discovery of the rational order 
that pervades the universe." It would be very easy to convince 



122 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

Prof. Huxley, if he would listen to evidence, if he had desire 
enough to follow along the lines which could be investigated, that 
this rational order was known thousands and thousands of years 
ago. Otherwise these grand philosophies could never have had 
any existence. Another point which could easily be shown is that 
the method pursued by Prof. Huxley himself, that the direction in 
which he looks in order to find this rational order that pervades 
the universe, has never revealed to man that rational order, and 
never will. That rational order that pervades the universe cannot 
be found by the methods of modern science. It cannot be found by 
investigating phenomena, it cannot be found alone by the inductive 
method of reasoning. It must be looked for in other directions 
and derived by other means. The method of science, as defined 
by Prof. Huxley, is that science proceeds by exact observation 
and correct reasoning. Here no intelligent Theosophist will take 
any exception as far as it goes, but the definition of the method 
remains incomplete. One thing more must be added to it, and 
that is experience. In other words, you will have to bring in the 
problem of consciousness, and go deeper than mere observation 
through the physical senses. You must go to the mind, and even 
beyond the reasoning faculty, in order to discern the rational order 
that pervades the universe. 

Prof. Huxley also says that all physical science starts from 
certain postulates. Now, what is a postulate ? It is an assumption, 
it is an hypothesis and nothing more or less. They are called 
postulates when they are involved with other postulates, and when 
particularly the effort is made to weave them into what is called a 
system of postulates or a system of philosophy. Well, physical 
science starts from certain postulates. One of them is the objective 
existence of a material world, and I shall expect to show that this 
is not only one of them but that it is the crowning one in modern 
science. The validity of these postulates is a problem of meta- 
physics. They are neither self-evident nor are they, strictly speak- 
ing, demonstrable. Now, when we look to modern science as 
being exact, when we look to its decrees as being final, let us bear 
in mind this confession of one of the foremost if not the very fore- 
most advocate of modern science — a man who cannot be used in 
support of materialism, however. It is only by the lesser lights, 
it is only when Prof. Huxley is misquoted or misunderstood, I 
think, that he can be declared to be a materialist. 

These problems or postulates, he says, are neither self-evident 
nor are they, strictly speaking, demonstrable, and this is the basis 
of modern science. Here comes now a confession from Prof. 
Huxley which seems to me very strange. It startled me as I read 
it. I don't know where he got it. He says, " Perhaps it may 
occur to the reader that the boasted progress of physical science 
does not come to much if our present conceptions of the funda- 
mental nature of matter are expressible in terms employed more 
than two thousand years ago by the old Masters, of those who 
know." 

To whom could Prof. Huxley have referred in — " the old 
Masters, of those who know " ? 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. I23 

Quoting still from Prof. Huxley, a fallacy. " In antiquity, 
these postulates meant little more than vague speculations." He 
very much mistakes. At the present day they indicate definite 
physical conceptions susceptible of mathematical treatment and 
giving rise to innumerable deductions the value of which may be 
experimentally tested. 

In the first paper which I had the honor to read to the Con- 
gress, I referred to the historical evidence showing that what we 
call Theosophy may be traced back to the Middle Ages, to the be- 
ginning of the Christian era, to Plato and Zoroaster ; and what was 
the key-note of the philosophy of Pythagoras, the science of num- 
bers, of mathematics ; and looking at the schools of mathematics 
as they existed in those days, and looking at the way they experi- 
mented in regard to Man by numbers and harmonies, do you think 
they can be accused of not knowing mathematics, or that they 
could not apply the principles of mathematics to the postulates of 
their philosophy ? 

" In the meanwhile," he says, " the primitive atomic theory 
which has served as the scaffolding for the edifice of modern 
physics and chemistry, has been quietly dismissed," that is, in the 
form in which it was received in the Western world. But the form 
in which it was taught in the Secret Doctrine can never be refuted. 
The difficulty is in the concept of matter. " In the meanwhile," he 
says, " the primitive atomic theory which has served as the scaf- 
folding for the edifice of modern physics and chemistry, has been 
quietly dismissed. I cannot discover," he says, " that any contem- 
porary physicist or chemist believes in the real indivisibility of 
atoms or in an interatomic matterless vacuum." That was the old 
theory which seems to have served as a " scaffolding for modern 
science." 

Now, he comes to the important point, the question of genesis, 
or abiogenesis. Whether matter has ever passed into living mat- 
ter without the agency of pre-existing living matter, necessarily 
remains an open question. " All that can be said is that it does 
not make this metamorphosis under any known conditions. They 
who take a monistic view of the physical world," (that is, regard- 
ing matter and spirit as being essentially one) " may fairly hold 
abiogenesis " (or spontaneous generation) "as a pious opinion." 
And here is the only little fling that I find in this magnificent lec- 
ture. He says it may be " held as a pious opinion supported by 
analogy and defended by our ignorance." "As matters stand," 
he says, "it is as equally justifiable to regard the physical world as 
a sort of dual monarchy." I think this is a proper and fair claim 
for us. The theory has only an equal justification with that other 
theory which he simply terms an a priori opinion. " The kingdoms 
of living matter and of non living matter are under one system of 
laws," and the fact of their profound mystery is consistent with 
the Theosophical philosophy, " and there is a perfect freedom of 
exchange and transit from one to the other." This implies by fair 
reasoning all that the Theosophical philosophy claims for that uni- 
versal ether, or that universal spirit or consciousness, or that 
universal life, call it by whatsoever name you will — it furnishes the 



124 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

basis of the Theosophical philosophy. " But no claim," he says in 
conclusion, " to biological nationality is valid except birth." 

Now, this is as fair an outline as I can procure of the points 
presented by Prof. Huxley that bear on the points claimed by the 
advocates of Theosophy to-day. 

The fact is, that just so long as science makes its formulations 
with regard to matter, with regard to force, with law and mathe- 
matics, we have no quarrel whatever with the scientists. It is only 
when they come to deny with regard to intelligence, with regard to 
soul, with regard to spirit, that we take issue with them. 

You find in w T hat is called science in modern times, that it repre- 
sents simply one department in human knowledge. And we hear 
even yet, although it is only, perhaps, the echo that is dying away, 
a good deal about the conflict between religion and science. The 
unity, the sequence, the co-ordination of the knowledge of Man as 
an individual, as a knower, is a matter of great importance. And 
the result of modern methods of investigation is to divide what we 
call knowledge into three departments, Religion, Philosophy, and 
Science, and to establish or to permit very little association or 
recognition between these departments. This seems to have 
served for the cultivation of each department in its own way, in its 
own realm, but it does not minister, it never has nor ever can, it 
seems to me, minister to the intelligent enlightenment of Man to 
have his knowledge divided in any way without any recognition of 
the fact that knowledge in one department is not different to the 
individual knower than knowledge in any other department of his 
being. 

Now, the element that the Theosophical Society brings into 
modern thought is the basis upon which Philosophy, Science, and 
Religion all find a resting place. There is here no disagreement 
whatever ; here religion never contradicts Philosophy, here Science 
never disagrees from either Religion or Philosophy. This basis 
upon which the knowledge of Man rests is a revelation from the 
elder brothers of the race. This has never yet, so far as History 
records, been discovered by investigation of natural phenomena 
alone. Men who deal simply with phenomena, no matter how 
carefully they may observe the phenomena, no matter how logically 
they may reason upon the phenomena, until they push their in- 
vestigations farther than this, they can never come to what justly 
may be termed actual knowledge. Now, there is one term with 
which we are all very familiar, " Self-Consciousness !" We are 
familiar with this. Now, what is, in a general way, Self-Con- 
sciousness ? Man is conscious. Every atom of matter in the 
universe, according to our philosophy, in its own degree, in its 
own way, under its own limitations, possesses the germs or the 
element of consciousness. The animals are conscious, but their 
consciousness differs from that of Man. It is only when you come 
to the human consciousness that we use the term self-conscious- 
ness, and what is that self-consciousness ? Self-consciousness is 
that manifestation or that evolution of the universal consciousness 
of nature, when the individual himself is conscious of his con- 
sciousness, when he can investigate and analyze his own mind, 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 125 

when the thinker, the real man, can retire within the citadel of his 
soul and take cognizance of his own methods of knowing. 

Now, the point where modern scientists again divide is upon 
this problem of consciousness. They have not the advantage of 
the Eastern philosophy, which regards matter, life, intelligence, 
force, consciousness as one all-pervading, universal principle, and 
it is only from the Theosophical view of the subject that the value 
of this primary postulate becomes clear, where it can be truly 
appreciated. Under this method of reasoning we deal with con- 
sciousness, and what is consciousness in this connection? It is 
simply the use by Man of his intellectual faculties, of his reasoning 
faculties, of his sensory faculties, to investigate by process of 
observation and of sensation the phenomena of a material world. 
And Prof. Huxley himself says that Science investigates, or, at 
least, that its method is the observation of phenomena and correct 
reasoning upon the nature of these phenomena. What, now, is the 
method of philosophy ? Science proceeds by what we call the 
analytical method. The scientist, like the little boy, takes the 
thing apart, separates it into its constituent elements, in order 
to find out what makes the wheels go round, but he does not find 
out by any method of sensation alone. Prof. Huxley says we 
experiment by applying the process of correct reasoning to what 
we have observed. But then when you come to reason upon things, 
we find that different individuals will reason in a different way, 
and that the basis of the reasoning of every individual will be the 
evolution of his faculty to reason. And, therefore, the results at 
which individual investigators arrive must necessarily differ in 
every individual case ; and who shall determine the result, and 
therefore the criterion of truth, inasmuch as every different indi- 
vidual must come to a different conclusion from every other? You 
have here what I conceive to be a logical definition and a very fair 
statement of science, when science is regarded merely as one of the 
three departments of knowledge in the mind of Man. Now, 
Philosophy, as I understand it, is the supplement of science. 
Just as by the analytical method of science you take things apart 
and observe phenomena, so in all true philosophy you put things 
together and ascertain how they came, and try to discover what 
Prof. Huxley calls the rational order of the universe. 

But I do not think that either of these two methods alone while 
pursued separately w T ill lead Man to truth by any means. 

Now, there is Religion, divorced in modern times, set apart from 
Science, and not recognizing Philosophy ; and furthermore, there 
is recognized unfortunately a conflict between Religion and 
Science, and this degradation of Philosophy into what is called 
mere idle speculation, tolerated neither by the religionists nor by 
the scientists. As to Religion itself, we have made it a super- 
stition. It has been walled about and separated from other kinds 
of knowledge till it has lost its energy. Now, there is a duty to 
Science and Philosophy, and another duty to Religion ; and that is, 
devotion to truth, devotion to the highest ideal. 

The purpose of investigation is to define by religion — and it is 
the core of the great religions of the world — to point out not only 



126 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

the method, not only the means, of acquiring it, but also the use 
that shall be made of the true religion, which is one with that 
trinity which we may call Science, Philosophy, and Religion. 
Therefore I say that we have no warfare with science so far as it 
deals with matter, force, and phenomena, so far as it affirms the exist- 
ence of material phenomena, but when it denies in regard to spirit, 
when it simply puts the problem one side and refuses to investi- 
gate it, then we take issue with the school. Now, the whole of 
modern science may be said to proceed on one line or one basis, 
and that is, it undertakes to reduce all problems in nature and in 
life to questions of mass and motion. Physical Science is neces- 
sarily materialistic, and so far we have not a particle of fault to 
find. with it. But when it undertakes to represent mental phe- 
nomena, vital force, consciousness, and all the higher attributes of 
Man and all of the higher aspects of nature, in terms of mass and 
motion, it becomes perniciously materialistic, and we have a per- 
fect right to call a halt at that point. 

Now, the problem that I referred to a few moments ago, the 
problem of consciousness or self-consciousness, is a great stumbling 
block to modern science. Prof. Tyndall, one of the foremost ad- 
vocates of modern science, a great many years ago made the 
declaration that between the molecular structure of the brain and 
consciousness there was a gap — he did not say " over which we 
could not pass," but he says that it was one that was inconceivable, a 
gap over which there were no bridges — there could be no connection 
established whatever. In other words, modern science has not 
determined whether matter can think, or how, or why. 

You may take all the philosophies of the world, and very fairly 
and justly classify them into two categories One is the assumption 
that matter alone exists, and that everything is an attribute, or 
property, or potency, or outgrowth of matter ; the other class will 
take the opposite view exactly, namely, that spirit alone exists, and 
that everything else is spirit precipitated or differentiated. Now, 
in the Theosophical philosophy we postulate a single substance 
that lies back of both matter and spirit, of force and intelligence, 
that one inscrutable, eternal, unknowable principle which is 
neither matter nor force, neither matter nor spirit, but the root 
from which all of these come, and its consciousness is universal in 
nature, as it is manifested in individual man. 

Therefore we have in what would be called the Science of the 
Secret Doctrine or the Science of Theosophy, no such missing links. 
We have no necessity in our scientific investigations to make any 
such assumptions as are made, or any such admissions of gaps or 
missing links as are found in science, and we take issue only 
with the advocates of modern science when they cease to be scien- 
tific, when they begin to be dogmatic, and when in the face of 
the logical conclusions justified by the investigations pursued by 
the senses, and justified by rational processes pursued in these 
investigations, they begin to deny, to scoff, to ridicule philosophy 
or religion or the realm to which the mind of Man is open and 
which he may himself investigate as a matter of experience if only 
he will. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 1 27 

This problem, then, of science is the one that I have already said 
is the bugbear, the stumbling block, of modern science, and it is the 
basic proposition in the philosophy and the science of the secret 
doctrine. 

When the true relations between what we call intelligence or 
reason and consciousness and mind are once determined, when we 
have the starting point in Man, the thinker, the Eagle, the reasoner, 
when we have that well fixed in our minds, then everything else 
flows from them with a logical sequence that leaves no missing 
link, and that leaves no gaps in our knowledge, so far as we go. 
Knowledge then, real knowledge, becomes an investigation, and 
an experience of the soul. Science as it is pursued, I don't think 
can justly be called a result. It is rather a method. Therefore 
when the advocates of science undertake to hold up to us some- 
thing which is indefinite and vague, which they call the authority 
of science, we call a halt. We claim that it is a method of the 
human mind, and that there is no such thing as a body of doctrines 
or a formulated series of results that can have any more authority 
over the human mind than can the dogmas of religion. One really 
rests upon the same basis as the other. It is simply a premature 
conclusion, and so far as the materialistic conclusions that are 
drawn from the statements of men like Huxley and Darwin and 
Herbert Spencer and many that are quoted as advocates of mate- 
rialism, I say, so far as their own statements are concerned, you will 
very seldom find them materialistic. The larger the mind the 
broader his intelligence, the deeper his consciousness, the stronger 
his conscientiousness. In other words, the larger the man in every 
sense, the more careful and guarded and charitable will be his 
statement. It is only when the lesser lights come to hasty deduc- 
tions and draw illogical conclusions from the statements of these 
scientists that materialism grows up; and therefore we have no 
hesitancy in making the declaration as publicly as we can, that 
there is nothing that has been demonstrated in modern science 
that is inconsistent with the Secret Doctrine, that there is no prop- 
osition laid down by them which is reasonable and which agrees 
with one's common sense which is not also advocated by the Secret 
Doctrine and which cannot be found in the Secret Doctrine. 
The prediction has been made by the authors of the Secret 
Doctrine that although in the present age science is per- 
haps too proud, too conceited, to examine these doctrines in order 
to ascertain candidly and dispassionately just what they contain, 
still the prediction is made that in the twentieth century they will 
be investigated and receive a recognition of their true worth and 
true value; and it seems to me that the twentieth century is very 
close upon us to-day, when we have been able to gather here so 
many interested individuals to hear about these doctrines, and I 
don't think we need fear in any sense whatever as to what the 
result must finally be. 

Of course there are two organizations which will yield last to 
the modifying influences which Theosophy undertakes to introduce 
into human thought ; and they are the religious organization and 
the scientific organization. And so far as I can observe in all 



128 



THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



fairness, the more dogmatic of the two to-day is science. Alto- 
gether more so than religion itself. 

These problems, of course, are of such a character that to take 
them up in detail, as I said in the beginning, would be impossible 
in a brief argument Such as I am trying to pursue. The number 
of points at which, however, modern science is becoming har- 
monious with ancient philosophy is very surprising, and the refer- 
ence of Prof. Huxley which I read to you in regard to the 
atomic theory proves it. For instance, where he says it is not 
demonstrable in the ordinary sense through the agency of the 
senses that the constitution of matter is a metaphysical problem 
and that the atomic theory is now an exploded one though it was 
a very good scaffolding. When you come to the experiments by 
Prof. Crookes, his metaphysical investigations into the consti- 
tution of matter, when you read the writings of Prof. B. W. Rich- 
ardson, when you read the address of Prof. Lodge, one of the 
foremost chemists in England — the paper he read to the advanced 
men of modern science, where he told these men that they might as 
well drop all expectation of realizing the ultimatum of science by 
the aid of reason and experimentation alone — you see plainly that 
they are trenching upon the ground of ancient philosophy, and in 
these later utterances you will find the dying wail of materialistic 
science, you will find at last the note, the morning song, of 
the new science of the new philosophy which has come into 
the world, which is born of metaphysics, which is born by 
pushing the intellect of man out into space, and reasoning upon 
the foundations of matter and force, and supplementing all that 
has been derived by an analytical investigation, by correct reason- 
ings as to the basis of life, as to the basis of matter, and as to the 
basis of force, and of all these things ; and therefore, I say, that 
in presenting this subject to the attention of the Western world 
we have no hesitation whatever in saying that the basis — the 
scientific basis — of the Theosophical philosophy stands in no fear 
whatever of modern science, that it can maintain itself against all 
comers, that the gaps or the missing links of science are filled 
without a single exception in these ancient philosophies, and fur- 
thermore that in the problems of mind, of thought, of reason, of 
consciousness, in all the higher problems in the life of Man, there 
is given here a basis which cannot be found at all outside of the 
ancient Wisdom Religion. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 1 29 



ALTRUISM INCUMBENT BECAUSE OF COMMON ORIGIN, 
COMMON TRAINING, COMMON INTERESTS, COMMON 
DESTINY, AND INDIVISIBLE UNITY. THEOSOPHY 
AND ETHICS. 



PROF. G. N. CHAKRAVARTI. 



One of the greatest fallacies that are committed in the spiritual 
life, both in the East and West, is that because the spiritual teach- 
ing advocates the subjugation of the flesh and the giving up of the 
gratification of the senses, the way can be attained by falling away 
from the duties that one has to perform, and by retiring into the 
forests and jungles to meditate upon something, heaven knows 
what. Not*so, however, can the animal tendencies and the over- 
powering attractions created throughout a series of incarnations be 
conquered, not so can one pass out of the wheel of births and re- 
births. If he runs away, a chain a thousand times stronger brings 
him back on the arm of the wheel of birth, to be broken, pounded, 
maimed, and injured until he regains his position again. The 
fallacy arises from the fact of putting forward the physical body 
and the energies of the physical plane above everything else in the 
universe. Think you that merely by taking the physical body out 
of the centre of activity you kill the activity of the mind ? A prison 
with its iron bars is not more stringent in confining you within its 
bounds than the thought, the passions, the desires, the grand 
attractions that you have every moment of your life created on the 
plane of the mind. Every moment of your life you are thinking of 
matter, and, according to the esoteric teaching, every thought that 
comes out of your brain has a potency for good or evil, it has a 
kinetic energy, a momentum which goes on rolling from time into 
time eternal. All these bands which you have been forging from 
incarnation to incarnation cannot be so easily broken. The body 
alone is not the whole of man. When I entered that most beautiful 
and magnificent of the harbors of the world, your own harbor of 
New York, I was delighted, I was edified by looking at that grand 
statue of Liberty with the torch of knowledge, equality, and 
fraternity in its hand. But it was not without a shadow of regret 
that I looked upon it ; my sensation was not altogether free from 
cloud. Thought I, Is liberty really possible thus ? Is liberty to be 
attained merely by the intellectual appreciation of the thing ? Is 
liberty really possible when the mind of man is enslaved with the 
thousand passions that work in his bosom? Is liberty possible 
when the heart of humanity is rent into a thousand pieces by the 
darts of selfishness ? (Applause.) So long as the root of the poison, 
the root o( selfishness, flourishes luxuriantly in the heart of the 
people, why, liberty, why. unselfishness, why, fraternity must 
forever remain a mere term, an illusion never to be realized. In- 
stead of fraternizing with each other, what have you got in the 



130 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

West ? A struggle for life ; the higher trampling upon the lower ; 
and still you talk of liberty ! Where is liberty to be found ? Not 
until your soul has been liberated from the turmoils and the various 
passions that are now storming in your nature, can you realize that 
ideal which you want to set up in that glorious monument in the 
harbor of New York. 

One of the great reasons for this delusion that mere retire- 
ment from the scene of the world leads to spiritual progress, 
is probably due to the fact that in India it is regarded as the ideal 
of spiritual life ; you have so many persons there roaming about 
the country without any ostensible end in view. Some of them are 
working for the good of humanity, although they don't work in the 
same way as you do. I confess, and I confess plainly before you, 
that there are hundred and thousands of sham yogees who sham 
and wear the garb of holiness so as to satisfy the cravings of the 
flesh and to gorge their stomach upon the charity qf the people. I 
do not mean to say that there do not exist ideals of simple unsel- 
fishness, the ideals of spiritual purity, even among those who 
spend every moment of their life in the contemplation of the divine 
and in serving humanity with all their heart, and that their soul is 
pure, which really is the necessary consequence of the realization 
of the higher life. But what I do mean is this : that this imitation 
of things only proves the existence of the genuine article, and there 
are quite enough to deceive the world by leading it to believe that 
in India, the land of spirituality, a life of laziness, a life of elimina- 
tion of one's duties, is sufficient. Not so. In the Shastras, Krishna 
very pointedly says : What is the use of your retiring, because 
even your body will not go on without acting ; and why can you be 
so selfish, why can you be so degraded, that your hands and feet 
may work only for the few feet of flesh that is in you, and not for 
the world into which you are placed, not for humanity of which 
you are a factor ? What is the use of retiring into the jungles and 
considering yourself to be a pure saint, when your minds revel 
simply in the infection of the tremendously vicious and the foul 
moral atmosphere of your own mind ? It is pure hypocrisy. And 
it is said in the Bhagavat Gita (reciting Sanscrit) that the man is a 
hypocrite who does retire in this way. Not only our teachings 
in the sacred rolls go to show what is this ideal life ; and it is not 
to retire from the world. Even the popular traditions and myth- 
ological fables lead you to the same conclusion, to the rigid and 
the strict performance of one's duties. On this point I am going 
to relate to you one of the finest stories that can be found in our 
sacred literature, showing you what ideal of duty has been held 
before India, in spite of the degeneration of our present days. 

There once reigned a king renowned for piety, renowned for 
devotion, and who never refused to grant any favor asked of him. 
There was also a sage who at that time was one of the spiritual 
gods of the country, and once upon a time this sage took it into 
his head to try the piety of this virtuous king. He came to him 
and asked him if he would grant him a favor. Out of the gen- 
erosity of his heart the king at once said, " Why, yes ; anything 
you want." The sage said, " I want your kingdom, I want nothing 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 13I 

short of that." Realizing the ephemeral nature of all possessions, 
considering as trash the most glorious throne on which a human 
being can sit, without a moment's hesitation the king gave away 
his kingdom. That was not all. The custom is in India that if 
you make a present to Brahma, here represented by the sage, you 
must give some gold along with it. The sage reminded him of 
that custom. He was confused ; he knew not what to do ; he had 
parted with all that he had, and whence was the gold to come ? Yet 
he was not to be balked, he was not to be taken out of the sphere of 
his duty. He said, " Yes, I shall give you the gold, and let me 
know, holy sage, what is the proper quantity." He was told that 
seven kotis of gold were required for such a present as this. Well, 
the king went with his royal queen to the market, and there he was 
prepared, for the sake of performing a duty to Brahma, to hold his 
wife up in the open market to be sold away as a slave. The wife, 
devoted as the Indian wife is, the ideal of chastity, the ideal of 
spiritual exaltation and purity, regarded not the lot, although her 
husband the king was the very sunshine and lotus of her heart, and 
it was without a pang of regret that she went out and said, 
"Verily, I shall stand by you in the path of Karma, in the path of 
virtue ; through me must you perform what is right." She was sold 
and fetched only four kotis of gold. There were three yet to 
come. The king himself offered himself to be a slave to somebody, 
and he was taken out to be a chandala, that is, a person whose 
duty it is to assess taxes upon bodies who come out to be burned 
on the bank of the great river. Thus they parted. 

The wife had a little son along with her, to whom no extra 
allowance of meal was given by her master. Out of the portion 
allotted to her did she support this child. But one fair morning 
when this child was sent out into the garden to cull certain flowers 
used in the worship of the master, a black, venomous viper crept 
out of its shady retreat and put an end to the sunshine of the 
queen's life. This little child was dead ; and with that child in 
her arms, with ashes in her breast and with tears in her eyes, she 
went out to the burning ghat, the place where the dead were 
burned, to consign the last relics of the dearest one to the flames, 
as is the custom in India. What is it that she saw there ? Her 
own husband, the king who never before his wife had refused 
anything to anybody, was standing there with the rod of his master, 
demanding tax for every body that was burned. In vain did the 
wife plead poverty, in vain did she plead her desperate condition, 
in vain did she plead to his heart as being his own truest one and the 
child their own. Immovable as the rock stood the king. He had 
his duty to perform to his master, and no human being, however 
sacred, was to swerve him from that rigid path of duty. At a 
moment like this the sage was satisfied, the gods were glorified 
with such devotion, such a rigid idea of duty, and, says the fable, 
came down from heaven fiery cars with gods in them to take the 
husband, wife, and child living, up to the heaven of bliss. This, 
then, is the ideal which is laid down in the Indian Shastras, to be 
reached by every human being according to the light that is in 
him, according to the strength that is in his breast. And, indeed, 



132 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

from the very conception of Indian philosophy, this has already 
been laid before you as in their view of life possible. 

The universe I tell you springs from one source and returns to 
the same source. In the first half of its evolution there is 
differentiation, there is parting, but in the latter half of its course 
there is again involution, reuniting, and each man advances 
according to his realization of this unity of all beings. The more 
totally a man realizes the essential unity of all existence, the more 
advanced is he on the plane of being. This being the case, you 
cannot cut yourselves away from the mass, you cannot shrink from 
the world's garments that lie around you. It is for you to realize 
that you cannot leave your brother behind. Ties unseen, ties 
unbreakable, ties which are in the nature of things, really bind you 
to the whole, and therefore with the whole mass you progress. 
This view of things leads you to perform your duty, to sacrifice 
yourselves for the good of others, because thus alone you can 
realize the unity of all being, thus alone you can see the links that 
bind you to your brother, and thus alone, therefore, can you make 
spiritual progress. It is nothing but the realization of the unity 
of all created beings. It is therefore a law which no one can 
subvert, that it is only upon the cross of sacrifice that you can 
atone for your sins, it is only from the altar of suffering that you 
can catch the spiritual fire ; only by burning itself does the candle 
show light to the world. Even so with the human being. You 
must burn your personality, you must discard all that you love and 
all that attracts you before you can reach the realms of the spirit. 
This is the grand work that we have to perform, and not run away 
to the jungles like cowards. You have to meet and face bravely 
and like a hero a thousand trials and troubles that meet you in 
your dreary journey through this vale of tears, and as you conquer 
each weakness it becomes a rung in the ladder of progress. Each 
little act that you do by sacrificing yourself for the benefit of 
humanity becomes a lovely bloom laid on the altar, made to the 
spirit that you worship. 

In this task, I need hardly say, there are great sufferings, great 
pains. As soon as you begin to live the life of unselfishness, why 
all the lower forces of your nature awaken with redoubled activity, 
and then begins to rage within you a warfare more stormy than 
any that you can imagine on the physical plane, more bloody than 
the battle of Thermopylae, more vigorous than any in the field of 
life. It is majestically represented in the allegory of the eternal 
fight between God and Satan. Yes, your heart's blood will have 
to be shed in this mighty struggle ; but you have no reason to de- 
spair, because if your devotion is unflinching, if you really pursue 
the truth, if you have got a glimpse of the eternal sun, nothing can 
vanquish you, and out of the dust and storm arising in this fearful 
struggle the moral hero will come with a crown of unsurpassed 
resplendence and beauty, decked with the diamonds of eternal 
peace, eternal life, and eternal bliss. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 133 



THEOSOPHY AND ETHICS. 

{Continued. ) 



ANNIE BESANT. 



In the part of the Syllabus that we are considering this after- 
noon, we have to conclude the discussion opened by our Indian 
brother, tracing on from step to step the meaning of Altruism, the 
growth of morality, the sanction, the motive of ethics, and the 
identity of moral teaching in every great religion in the world. 
That we have chosen as a final presentment in this Congress of 
our philosophy, for all philosophy has its right ending in ethics 
and in conduct, which is of the most vital importance to men and 
women in their daily life. 

First of all, then, we have the word Altruism, "incumbent," it 
is said, " because of man's common origin, common training, com- 
mon destiny," and so on. And if is true that in the earliest stages 
of moral life, altruism must be the goal that we set before our- 
selves. The service of others is what we should strive to perfect. 
But sometimes it has also seemed to me that altruism is itself but a 
stage of progress rather than the goal. That as long as service is 
consciously service of others, that is, of others separated from our 
own self, that there is still incompleteness in the ethics, there is 
still lack of spirituality in the soul. 

Some of you may remember that exquisite Persian poem in 
which the lover, seeking his beloved, finds closed against him the 
door of her chamber, and knocks, pleading for admission. From 
within the closed room sounds a voice asking " Who asks for ad- 
mission?" And believing that his love was the best claim that 
could be given for his entry, he answered, " It is thy beloved that 
knocks." But there was silence within the room and the door re- 
mained closed against the suppliant. Out into the world he went 
and learned deeper lessons of life and of love ; and coming back 
once more to the closed door, he struck thereon and asked for 
entry. Again the voice came, "Who is it that knocks?" But the 
answer this time was other than at first. No longer "Thy be- 
loved" came the words, but, "It is thyself that knocks," and then 
the door unclosed, he passed the threshold. For all true love has 
its root in unity, and there again it is not twain but one. So it 
would seem that in the highest ethic this is the true note that we 
should strike, inasmuch as for our best beloved there is no such 
thing as service regarded as altruistic, because the deepest joy and 
the highest pleasure come in serving that which is in very truth 
the better self of each ; so as we grow in spiritual life and under- 
stand the true oneness of humanity, we shall find in that humanity 
the best beloved. We shall serve our higher self in serving it, and 
thus once more we come back to that from which we started, the 
Invisible, the One and the All. 



134 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

And Altruism, glorious as it is in the lower stages of morality 
— Altruism itself — is lost in the Supreme Oneness of the human 
soul, in the absolute indivisibility of the Spirit in Man. While, 
however, we are still consciously separate, Altruism may rightly be 
regarded as the Law of Life, based on a common origin in the 
Divine, based in the common training, the pilgrimage which every 
soul of man must tread, based also in common experience, in that 
life after life where we have to learn every lesson, acquire all 
knowledge, share the various possibilities of human lot, and build 
out of common material a sublime character. In that life our des- 
tiny is one, the perfection of a divine humanity; one in origin, one 
in training, one in destiny, what shall avail to separate Man from 
Man and to build up walls of division between brothers ? 

Thus this Unity is the foundation of our brotherhood, as Broth- 
erhood is the word that includes all our ethics. For it is in the 
law of Love that all true conduct has its root. As long as exter- 
nal law is needed, that law is the measure of our imperfection ; it 
is only when no law is wanted, when the nature expressing itself 
spontaneously is one with the divine law, it is only then that hu- 
manity is perfected and liberty and law become one forevermore. 

Here again is the sanction of right ethics, found in this fact of 
brotherhood everywhere discoverable in nature. All our Euro- 
pean World discussing ethical systems to-day, is asking for some 
categorical imperative which shall announce duty and right to 
man. Take what systems you will in our German Schools of Phi- 
losophy, the system of Kant in Germany or any of the many 
schools of ethics being gradually builded by our English-speaking 
people — everywhere you will find the question propounded, What 
is the Imperative ? What is the Ought ? What is the Thou Shall, 
which is to be the training in human life? 

" It is not possible," say some schools, and you may find this 
expressed very clearly and well in one of the well-known books 
of Professor Sedgwick in dealing with the question of Ought — we 
are face to face with a difficulty as to why we ought. Can we get 
any further than a conditional imperative ? Can we go beyond the 
statement to Men, If you want to reach such a goal, such and such 
is the path you should pursue ? 

To take his own illustration, you may say to a pupil, " If you 
want to paint and be a great artist, you must hold your brush in 
such fashion ; you must train your eye by such and such rules ; 
you must gradually gain the knowledge which underlies form, and 
by these many steps you shall at last reach your goal." 

Is morality the same in this sense as Art or Science? Is it 
always to depend upon an If, so that if Man refuses the goal he 
shall reject right conduct and stand lawless in a universe of law ? 
If that be so, it seems to me that progress will be very slow 
amongst men, for you would have them first to evolve the con- 
science, and it is the very training of the conscience for which right 
ethics is needed. You would be walking constantly in a vicious 
circle having no point of starting. You would be endeavoring to 
use a lever with an absent fulcrum, and so find no vantage point to 
which your force could be applied. It is the categorical impera- 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 135 

tive we need, not the conditional. Not " If Thou wilt be perfect, 
do this or that," but, " Thou shalt be perfect, and the Law of Life 
is Thus.". 

And is it not true that Nature speaks in such fashion ? Is it not 
true that from the lips of Nature, physical, we will say, there 
sounds ever the categorical imperative ? Man, ignorant and foolish, 
unknowing the laws that surround him, desires to follow the 
promptings of his own untrained will, driven perhaps by the de- 
sires of the lower nature and hearing in them the voice that allures 
and compels. From the lips of Nature drop sternly the words, 
"Thou shalt." Answers the will of Man able to choose, " I will 
not." And then there falls upon the silence but the two words, 
" Then suffer." 

Such is the way in which physical nature teaches the inviolabil- 
ity of law. Man, following his own untrained will, strives to follow 
it, be a fence of physical law around him or not. He dashes him- 
self against the iron wall he cannot break, and the pain of the 
bruising, the anguish of the mutilation, teaches him that law is in- 
violable and unchangeable, that it must be obeyed or the disobedi- 
ent will perish in the struggle. 

Is Nature different on her different planes ? Does she speak 
clearly, as well in the moral and in the spiritual world as in the 
physical ? Yea, for all Nature is one. The expression of the one 
divine will is nature, and until you can change the divine will, no 
law that is the expression of that will can be altered ; and, there- 
fore, in morals as much as in physics, this imperative, this cate- 
gorical imperative, is hers. But unhappily, it has not been undis- 
puted ; unhappily, men have thought they could play with morals 
where they would never dream of playing with physical necessity. 
They have thought that they could sow one seed and reap another, 
when they were sowing virtue and vice instead of the mere corn or 
oats. And they have wondered and they have not understood 
when each seed is ripened after its own nature, and the moral 
seed has ripened according to law, and given a corrupt society 
and degraded humanity and a soul stupefied and drugged by sense. 

Does such teaching seem stern and cold ? Does it seem as 
though Man in a remorseless universe, found in the wheels of des- 
tiny rolling round him no- place of refuge, no harbor in which he 
might escape? Does he feel that these wheels moving round him 
crush him, that law is iron, and destiny cannot be escaped ? My 
brothers, ill do you read the Universe if to you law seems cruel, if 
to you death may seem soulless. Law is but the will of the divine, 
and the divine who desires your happiness. Law is but the ex- 
pression of the perfect, and only in perfection can joy and peace 
be found. Lose sight of this will for a moment, of those wheels 
that seem to crush you, for though the wheels roll on unchanging, 
the very heart of the universe is love. Therefore it is that some of 
us who have caught glimpses of this unity, who have seen that 
love and justice are one, and that injustice and cruelty would be 
identical, therefore it is sometimes that, looking at the universe, 
we feel that while the law is changeless it lifts us instead of 
crushing us. And has not your own Emerson taught you the same 



136 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

lesson ? Can you remem'ber in one of those marvellous essays of 
his he taught the great truth that Nature only looks cruel while 
we oppose her ; she is our strongest helper when we join ourselves 
to her. For every law that crushes you while you oppose it, lifts 
you when you are united to it. Every force that is against you 
while you are lawless, is on your side when you make yourself 
one with law. He tells you to hitch your wagon on to a star, for 
then the wagon shall move with all the force of the planet above 
you ; and is it not a greater destiny even to surfer until we learn 
the law, than to escape it and remain in ignorance when the law is 
that which brings us ultimately to triumph ? Nature is conquered 
by obedience, and the divine is found in a unity of justice and 
of love. 

Brotherhood, then, in its full meaning is a law in nature. 
Stress has more than once been laid on this in our meetings, 
but not too much stress has thereon been laid. For it is the very 
object, the desire, of our work that brotherhood shall become 
practical in society, and it will never become practical until men 
understand that it is a law, and not only an aspiration. It is a 
common experience that when men have discovered a law of nature, 
they no longer fight against it. They at once accommodate them- 
selves to the new knowledge. They at once adapt themselves to 
the newly-understood conditions, and in that very way have 
preached brotherhood. And yet brotherhood is but so little known 
in our Western World ! Is it not possible that men have disobeyed, 
not because they do not recognize the beauty of the ideal, but 
because they have not understood its absolute necessity, and the 
failure of every effort that goes against the universal law in life. 

Brothers in our bodies by that interaction of physical molecules 
of which our Brother Judge has already spoken ; brothers in our 
minds by that interaction of mental images and mental pictures 
whereby every one of us is constantly affecting his brothers. In 
our spirits, above all, and on every plane of life, brotherhood 
exists as fact. 

And it must be remembered, in dealing with this brotherhood, 
that the word is meant to imply everything that it means in what 
we call the closest relationships of daily life. We are apt to make 
a distinction between brethren in churches and those outside. We 
should follow in that which we preach of, if it is that real brotherhood 
of love that we desire amongst men. Sometimes it is said that by 
ceasing to love the nearest we shall grow to love impersonal 
humanity. It is not so. The life of love is a growth upward, an ex- 
pansion ever widening, growing out from the family to the city, 
from the city to the state ; from the nation to humanity. It does 
not begin by dwarfing the love of the home. It starts there and it 
carries on all the passions — the passion and the pity that the 
mother feels for the child of her own body, and extends that love 
to embrace every child and son of man — not by cooling down love, 
but by strengthening and widening it out. 

Thus is brotherhood to grow and the race to become practically, 
as it is essentially, one. For it is these relationships that teach the 
wider possibility, and so, in the Book of the Golden Precepts, one 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 1 37 

of the most exquisite gifts that we have received from the East 
through H. P. Blavatsky, we are told, " Follow the wheel of life 
below the wheel of duty to the race and kin ; as those duties are 
properly discharged we become worthy of the wider work." The 
heart widens out and because it is never closed against any. And 
at the very beginning of the path, the first step the disciple is bid- 
den to take is to make his heart respond to every cry of nature, so 
that, as the heart-string quivers under the touch, he, as string, shall 
quiver to every cry of need that comes from his brother's lips. But if 
we confine our love to those with whom nature has put us, it is lower 
love. The lower love is selfish, exclusive, taking from the outside to 
give to the personally beloved, and careless for the wants of others 
provided one's own is satisfied. I mean one's own in the family, not 
one's own personally. That is not true love. It is a form only of 
selfishness, and when you find in our teaching that such love is to 
be destroyed, it means that love must be purified of every taint of 
personality, and so we must grow ever upward, widening as we 
grow, because the love that we are to give to our brother man is to 
be measured by his want of it and not by any of the lesser ties of 
personality. That may bind us to him or may be absent between 
him and us. The measure of want — that is the measure of giving. 
The agony that cries for help — that is the claim that we have to an- 
swer. And so our teachers train us to discharge the nearest duty 
so that we may carry on the strength of that to the wider duty, 
and thus make our love to man as the love of husband to wife, as 
the love of brother to sister, finding in the pain but joy in the 
sacrifice, because the happiness of the beloved is deeper than the 
momentary pain of that which is given to us. 

Thus, then we learn, as it were, the sanction, the motive, that 
which nature tells us as regards this human brotherhood, and from 
that we step onward to deal with those who are not yet quite 
touched with that light of reality which makes the appeal to the 
divine in man the mightiest of impulses. 

For, as man develops, he answers to nobler and nobler impulses, 
and at first, very often, the method of the teacher must be the 
method of Nature, which allows men to learn by pain the reality 
that I was speaking of with regard to the law. And so by Karma 
we scent another sanction for right ethics ; so we teach men that 
selfishness can but breed sorrow and evil, can have no other offspring 
than misery. If they will not learn by love they must learn by 
pain. If they will not learn by longing 'for God, they must learn 
by experience of the evil ; and if that real tree of life which is in 
every human heart does not sufficiently attract them to the eating 
of its fruit, the tree of Life Eternal whose fruits are but of love and 
duty, then they must eat of the tree of knowledge of evil as well as 
of good, so that if, to quote one of the sweetest of our English 
poets — "if Goodness move him not, then Misery may toss him to 
my breast." For that is the voice of the Spirit crying in the 
world, crying to all that has gone out from it to come back. If 
its voice does not attract, then suffering must be used for a time 
to drive. Back the wanderer must come ; the exile cannot remain 
abroad ; his seat is empty in the home, it waits for his return, and 



138 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

if he will not come by love, then by starving on the husks that are 
fit food for swine he must learn the lesson. And the unrest of the 
transitory, the dissatisfaction of the temporal — that shall turn his 
steps once more homeward till he come near enough to be drawn 
by love and no longer by pain. 

Thus, then, we have the foundation which deals with facts as 
sanction for righteousness, and thus Re-incarnation once more 
comes in in order to show us that only by right living can progress 
be made, that if selfishness is to be eradicated unselfish acts must 
be performed, selfish thoughts must be destroyed, for in re-incar- 
nation it is thought which moulds the character, and none can 
mould the character towards evil and thus discover tendencies to 
good. Thus we remove arbitrariness from the moral world by 
knowledge of self. Knowledge has removed it from the physical. 
Thus we take away all the doubt and the hope that springs from 
the doubt, that we may escape the results of our own actions and 
creep into unearned bliss by some side door of vicarious atonement, 
where we have not labored and where we have not wrought. We 
learn that each must walk on his own feet — that each man must 
grow by his own effort. Though brother souls must help him, he 
must also help himself. For Truth does not need invertebrate 
people saved by the goodness of another. Truth needs men and 
women strong to stand in the strength they have acquired for 
themselves, strong that by their example the still weaker may be 
inspired, and gradually each one may show himself divine. 

But all this is not new. There is nothing new save the words 
that clothe it, nothing new save the garment that is woven round 
it. We have had all this as our priceless heritage for millions of 
years, and yet we have not recognized our treasure. Every great 
teacher of Religion has taught what here I feebly repeat to-day. 
Every great one who has come into the world in order to strike the 
key-note of morality has spoken the same language, has uttered the 
same thought. 

Turn to the scriptures of the world and see how one moral 
nutriment is found in all. Will you go to China, Lao-tze will 
teach you the law of love, and teach you the very doctrine familiar 
in your own creed ; for Lao-tze, speaking six hundred years before 
Christ was born, laid down that law of curing evil by good. Yes, 
we have not yet learned the only law of Peace. " The untruthful," 
he said, "I will meet with Truth, as I meet the truthful also. I 
will meet the liberal with liberality, I will meet the illiberal with 
liberality also. The faithful I will meet with faith, the unfaithful 
I will meet with faith also. I will cure the miser by generosity, I 
will cure the liar by truth." 

So, as from the lips of a Chinese teacher, there drops from those 
of a great Hindu sage exactly the same thought, when in the ten- 
fold system of duties Mano put forgiveness of injuries as the vital 
law of the progress of the soul. So, six centuries before Christ, the 
Buddha repeated the lesson — " To him that causelessly injures me 
I will return the protection of my ungrudging love. The more evil 
comes from him, the more good shall flow from me." Exactly the 
same lesson flows from the lips of the great Jewish teacher, when 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 139 

in the Sermon on the Mount he bids his disciples " Love your 
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, 
that you may be the children of your father in Heaven, who send- 
eth his sunlight on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain alike 
on the just and on the unjust." 

The Voice is one, whether from Jew or Buddhist, whether from 
Hindu or Chinaman, the words are well-nigh one, the spirit is 
identical. What want we, then, of new morality, while the old 
remains unfulfilled ? Why ask for new teaching when the old is so 
high above our accomplishment to-day? It may be that amongst 
far-off generations, when the growth of Man has been perfected, it 
may be that in some future cycle of evolution, some morality un- 
dreamed of to-day, some ethic more noble, more sublime, more 
pure, may come from the lips of some God to man. We are not 
ready for such teaching, we are not yet prepared for such instruc- 
tion. Enough for us the ancient law of love, for until we have 
fulfilled that, no other horizon can open before our eyes. 

And so, at this last of our sessional meetings, we close with that 
with which we started, the law of a divine life that brings all 
things with it, the law of a divine love that is the guiding light of 
man. 

Born of the spirit, we go towards the Spirit. Born of the divine 
love, we live until that love is perfected in us, and when that love 
is made perfect, what lips of Man may syllable, what brain of Man 
may conceive, what further heights of beauty, what further depths 
of joy, what further possibilities of illimitable expansion, lie before 
those souls whose life is one with the divine. Bound to the feet of 
divinity, they last as long as it. Boundless as deity itself, no lim- 
itations can check the spirit that lives in man. (Applause.) 
Adjourned until 8 p. m. 



140 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



SIXTH SESSION, SATURDAY 16TH, 8 P. M. 
IN HALL OF WASHINGTON. 



GENERAL PRESENTATION OF THEOSOPHY TO THE 

PARLIAMENT. 



The Hall was crowded, about 3,500 persons being present. In 
consequence of the strained condition of Bro. William Q. Judge's 
voice, Dr. J. D. Buck was given the chair. 

Dr. Buck — We are here this evening, ladies and gentlemen, to 
present to the Congress of Religions a general statement of the 
Theosophical doctrines, of that which the Theosophical Society has 
undertaken in these latter times. An historical account of the Society 
was given this morning by Claude F. Wright, in which statistics 
were furnished, the organization of the Society was presented, and 
the work which has been accomplished was at least outlined. In 
the announcement that was made in 1875, three objects were given 
as the motive for the existence of the Society and for its organiza- 
tion. These were, first, to found the nucleus of a Universal Broth- 
erhood of humanity, without relation to race, creed, sex, caste, or 
color. You will please notice that to found the nucleus of a Uni- 
versal Brotherhood of man was the object. The early Theoso- 
phists, the founders of the Theosophical Society, have been accused 
of a great many things of which they were in no sense guilty. 
They were not guilty of the folly of supposing that at the present 
day a Universal Brotherhood of man could be established and fully 
realized. Humanity will have to travel a very long way over the 
road of evolution before it will unite as one mass in forming a 
Universal Brotherhood of man. It was, however, supposed, and, 
as the very latest developments have demonstrated, with very good 
reason, that there might be found among the people of the world 
enough to form the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood, and 
therefore in the establishment of this nucleus, the nucleus would 
become just what a nucleus always is: the very life and centre and 
the soul of the Theosophical Society. It is the same in vegetable 
structures, it is the same in the building of worlds, and the same 
way we know it will tend in that most complicated of all structures — 
human society. Around this nucleus, pledged to this one principle 
of Universal Brotherhood, it was hoped that the peoples of the 
earth, of nations, of men, might gather by aggregation, just as the 
process of organization takes place in living tissue, and just as any 
formation crystallizes around the nucleus, which sets, you may say, 
the rhythm or possibility of the organization or structure that is 
being formed around this rhythmic centre, imbued with this one 
idea, might in time gather others, and others and others again, 
until the nucleus itself became the structure of the Society. Now, 
the objection to this proposition is often made, that there is noth- 
ing new under the sun. It is new, however, to the Western world 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 141 

in the form in which it is presented by the Theosophical Society. 
We don't claim merely that brotherhood is a thing that ought to 
be accepted ; we don't claim that it is a thing simply which is 
greatly to be desired; we claim that it is a fact in nature, a uni- 
versal fact in the process of the evolution of Suns, and holds no 
less in the process of the evolution of humanity. Deny it as we 
will, we can no more change that which is a fact in nature than we 
can change the law of gravity or than we can subvert materially 
the law and processes of evolution. Therefore you see that the 
initiation of this fact of Universal Brotherhood comes to us with a 
different force from that with which it is presented by the various 
religions and philosophies of the world; because in the philosophy 
that unfolds under such a doctrine, it is demonstrated that this is 
a fact which cannot be controverted. And as was shown in the 
meeting this morning, he who resists this law simply puts himself 
as an individual against the whole trend of the current of evolu- 
tion. Nature issues her commands; under her invariable laws man 
may follow the lines of least resistance and work with nature if he 
will, but if he blindly resists, he takes the line of greatest resist- 
ance, and therefore the laws of progress, the whole evolutionary 
scheme of nature, is turned against him, and pain and suffering 
will result. We have all learned this fact in the processes of our 
individual life, our individual evolution. We have learned it and 
see by experience. But it has remained for philosophy, drawing 
from the immense resources of antiquity, from the philosophy of 
the far East, it has remained for the Theosophical Society to dem- 
onstrate this fact upon a scientific basis, to incorporate it into a 
system of philosophy that is knowledge and philosophy ; one in 
which there are no missing links ; one in which every proposition 
agrees with every other proposition; one in which the whole scheme 
of philosophy, man, and the universe agrees with all that modern 
and ancient science has discovered with regard to the laws of the 
universe. And then, passing this philosophy and this science, un- 
derneath is the background and the supporter of true religion. 

We are endeavoring, therefore, to revive that which at the be- 
ginning of the Christian era was called the gnosis, knowledge in 
its true sense, in its highest sense, in its purest sense; knowledge 
of that great secret which was the burden and the veil of the al- 
chemists, the secret of the human soul. Those who imagine that 
those Theosophists of the middle centuries and the dark ages, 
those philosophers who had a home in Europe and were known to 
the Western world as alchemists, that the true alchemists were not 
searching literally for the philosopher's stone or the luxury of 
life, or something to turn baser metals into gold, — those who say 
so have but read the surface of their writings ; they certainly have 
never read between the lines. For that process of transmutation 
to which they referred was simply to convert the baser elements of 
human nature, of human life, into those spiritual and divine es- 
sences from which the very life of man proceeds. 

The second object that was announced in the formation of the 
Theosophical Society was the examination and study of the an- 
cient religions and philosophies and sciences, and to demonstrate 



142 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

the importance of that study. Now, why was this stated as one 
of the objects for the formation of the Theosophical Society? Be- 
cause all of our Western world, whether you call it philosophical, 
religious, or scientific, was grossly wanting in the real knowledge 
of the soul, knowledge of the higher nature of man ; and because 
this study could give rise to but one result. It first so read the 
first proposition, viz.: the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of 
man, but as it was equally important, it would demonstrate incon- 
trovertibly the brotherhood of all great religions of the world, 
which had come down in the secret books in glyphics and sym- 
bols, the key to which was lost, the key to which was possessed by 
ancient Initiates in knowledge and preserved by the Rishis and 
Masters of old India from age to age, corrupted in the doctrines 
of Pythagoras, Plato, and Zoroaster, and a great many lesser lights 
since that time ; I say the key to this knowledge was to be found 
in the investigation of those Eastern religions. It was not by any 
means the purpose of the founders of the Theosophical Society to 
put any of the other religions that exist in the world to-day above 
the Christian religion or above any one of the other religions, but 
they hoped to demonstrate a Universal Brotherhood of religions 
equally with the Universal Brotherhood of man. The admission, 
the demonstration, of one of these principles verified the other, and 
therefore they were like the two hands upon the one body. Men 
who work for the brotherhood of man must necessarily work for the 
brotherhood of religions, and he who admits the brotherhood of 
the great religions of the world is doing the best he can in that 
way to demonstrate the fact and to bring about the return of the 
Universal Brotherhood of man. 

The third principle that was held out as the object of the 
Theosophical Society is the investigation of the latent psychical 
powers in man. Now, here is the point at which knowledge was 
needed more than at almost any other : the psychical nature of 
man. With the trend of Western thought, with all that was given 
out under the name of Western science, with all that came to the 
West under the name of evolution, men were becoming more and 
more materialistic, and man was losing the consciousness that he 
has a human soul. I remember only a very short time ago an 
individual very interested in these subjects asked me the question : 
" Do you really believe in the existence of the soul ? " The only 
answer that I could make to him was to reply in his own terms : 
" Do you really doubt or deny it ? " It is the consciousness of the 
soul that will come to every one who will open his own soul to the 
higher light of truth, to the light and to the ministrations of his 
own higher self ; it is in this line that will be discovered the exist- 
ence of the soul. And then when we come to its laws, its processes, 
its method of evolution, the fashions under which evolution or 
progress can be most rapidly and most certainly made, — this was 
the knowledge that was needed by the Western world more than 
almost anything else. And then there was another reason why it 
was particularly necessary fifteen years ago, and is necessary still. 
There came in the process of time a check to this wave of material- 
ism that was rolling over the Western world. I refer to that 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 143 

phenomenal existence or experience known as modern spiritualism. 
Take it with all of its eccentricities, take it with all of its physical 
manifestations and all its various phenomena, there are unques- 
tionably a very large number of facts that are incontrovertible as 
facts ; but without any correct knowledge of the nature and proc- 
esses and operation of the human soul, knowledge, impractical 
knowledge, derived along these lines of investigation, pursued 
ignorantly by spiritualists and their interested aiders, was far 
more likely to result in evil than good. The time therefore came 
when modern spiritualism ran into phenomenalism, and so far as 
furnishing a motive in life, so far as furnishing correct knowledge 
of the nature of man was concerned, I can say, I think, in all fair- 
ness and in all charity, it was rather the conception than the real. 
When this movement and this philosophy were furnished, a pretty 
large proportion of those who entered into the investigation of 
spiritualism were influenced to make further and deeper efforts. 
They came as simple truth-seekers to investigate the phenomena 
themselves. When you add that it is admitted by all fair and 
candid writers upon the subject that a very large proportion of 
the phenomena are evidently fraudulent, that a strong proportion 
of what are called professional mediums should pursue their calling 
for a fee and thus bring many into the investigation of the higher 
nature of man, are admitted to be frauds, and bring many unfor- 
tunate people into temptation, and so on this account there was 
greater than ever the need of exact, rational, definite, and satisfac- 
tory knowledge as to the nature of the human soul or the psychical 
nature of man ; and it was therefore the third object of study, to 
investigate the psychical powers latent in man. 

Now, because of this statement and because of the widespread 
ignorance in regard to this subject, the most foolish and inconsist- 
ent and contradictory reports have gone out with regard to the 
Theosophical movement. It is the most common thing in the 
world for people who know little of themselves and perhaps little 
more of spiritualism, to identify Theosophy with spiritualism. 
When asked What is Theosophy, they say, Simply an adjunct of 
spiritualism. But it is a very different thing indeed. We make an 
investigation of facts, and, when facts are demonstrated to us as 
such, why not admit them ? And especially if facts which under a 
broad and comprehensive philosophy that we have learned to 
accept as springing from the psychical nature of man. The most 
bitter opposition that has been accorded to the Theosophical 
Society has come from the spiritualists, simply because they have 
misunderstood generally the motive of Theosophy. They believe 
that it had for its object the destruction of spiritualism. It has 
been also accused of an intent to destroy Christianity and to set 
up Brahmanism or Buddhism or some other ism .in its stead. But 
nothing could be wider from the mark. There is one particular 
fact in regard to this psychical investigation that should be 
understood once for all ; that is, admitting all the facts, the 
authenticated and incontrovertible facts of spiritualism, Theosophy 
claims not only have the spiritualists not got the only logical and 
rational interpretation when they claim that these phenomena are 



144 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

caused by the disembodied spirits of men and women who have 
departed from this life and are therefore evidence of the immortal- 
ity of the sOul. We take issue with them just at that point. We 
claim it is not the only rational interpretation, but we claim that a 
better knowledge of the psychical nature of man will modify all 
these views and in a large number of instances change entirely the 
conclusions. We believe as firmly as any orthodox man, the 
member of any church, or any spiritualist, in the immortality of 
the soul, but we do not believe that that immortality can be 
demonstrated by communications with disembodied spirits. We 
believe it is the embodied spirit that should have consciousness of 
its own immortality, and at the same time be able to put in their 
own places all these psychic phenomena that can be demonstrated as 
facts that have been given to us by our brothers, the spiritualists. 
There need be no controversy at this point beyond mere disagree- 
ment as to the interpretation. There is not the slightest ground 
for any bitterness or ill feeling between the Theosophists and any 
- other body of believers or experimenters. That is our view. It is 
not put forth as orthodox. As to those who still cling to the spirit- 
ualistic interpretation of the phenomena, there is no one who has a 
disposition so far as I know, certainly there is no one who has the 
authority, to say that they have not a perfect right to interpret the 
phenomena in their own way ; for there is no creed or orthodoxy 
in regard to Theosophy. 

Now, taking these three objects of this Society, the first one of 
them was made obligatory upon those who sought membership in 
the Theosophical Society. The first and foremost, the most im- 
portant object for which the Society was formed, was this nucleus 
of Universal Brotherhood ; and better by far if all else had been 
forgotten and left out of the question than that this should be 
covered up or neglected in our duty ; because in the dimness of 
the future and in basing the life of the individual on the fact of 
Universal Brotherhood we find the surest way for charity among 
men, for recognizing the brotherhood of all religions ; and further- 
more, if the development of these very faculties in man which shall 
reveal to his own soul its own existence, its immortality, its nature, 
its destiny, its powers, and its possibilities, there is no way by 
which these investigations can be pursued so certainly as by altru- 
istic or charitable work in the world among our fellow men. 

There has been a great deal of misapprehension not only in 
regard to spiritualism, or the supposed relation existing between 
Theosophy and spiritualism, but upon certain teachings given out 
by Theosophy itself. It was not an uncommon thing in the early 
days of Theosophy for one who had got a little scattering knowl- 
edge of Theosophy and the possibility of the evolution of these 
powers in man, as referred to by Bro. Chakravarti ihis morning, 
it was not uncommon, I say, for one to get a little smattering of 
this philosophy and these ideas, and then begin to inquire where he 
could find a jungle in the forest so that he might retire from the 
world and develop these powers. No greater mistake could possibly 
have been made. Take an individual in our own civilization here, 
an intelligent individual, a very intelligent individual, charitable 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 145 

and kind as the world goes ; what would he do in a cave ? What 
could he do if under a teacher, when he cannot control his fleshly- 
appetites ? He was really ready to take this like any other psychic 
food and make the most of it, and it would have resulted, if he had 
persisted, in wrecking his life in one way or another. Nothing of 
the kind was ever admitted or inculcated by the Theosophic So- 
ciety, nothing by its teachings and its doctrines except the ordinary 
evolution of the higher nature of man, wherein man must work 
out his own salvation with fear and trembling ; not fear of an 
angry God, but of his own lower nature ; fear of the temptations 
of the flesh and the appetites weak and depraved of human nature. 
When a man has along this line conquered himself, then certainly 
he should be ready to conquer another world than that of the 
physical senses, than that of the seen and known. So I say, follow 
along these lines the mission of the Theosophical Society, so well 
defined and kept steadily before the people, although the Theo- 
sophical Society as such, and its leaders, have been held responsible 
by individuals for their own misapprehensions as to what it was : 
all this we-are trying to get before the world. 

It is evident from a consideration of these historical facts and 
these movements of modern times, it is evident the greatest aim of 
the world to-day is not for the organization of men simply to help 
each other. The greatest end is not for the Theosophic ameliora- 
tion of man, bad as that condition may be. The great end of the 
world to-day is for correct knowledge upon the higher nature of 
man ; because correct action never can proceed consistently, logic- 
ally, and persistently except upon the basis of right knowledge. 
It is not mere faith, blind belief, mere superstition, we need. It 
is simply a correct knowledge of the nature and possibilities of 
the human soul. 

Now, you can believe as individuals or not as you please, that 
the Theosophic philosophy is found in the writings of the ancients. 
In writings put forth by letters on masonry you /will find this the 
lost creed of humanity ; it is the knowledge of the human soul, 
this great secret symbolized on masonry by glyphics of secret 
meaning, that secret imparted under penalty of death by the 
Essenes, the Gnostics, by the Ecstatics, by thousands and thou- 
sands of societies whose names have been forgotten throughout 
the past. I say this is the great secret, the religion of the nature, 
destiny, the possibilities of the soul of man. That is what is sym- 
bolized in all Masonic lodges by the legend of Hiram Abiff ; this 
sacrifice by the son of the virgin. It is the individual, this man 
dwelling within man that is the building of the temple concerning 
which we hear so much in some of our secret organizations. What 
is the temple ? That house not made with hands, the spirit of 
which is eternal in the heavens. So that in the older philosophies 
and older mysteries, by symbols, by glyphics, by all manner of 
methods it was attempted to preserve or to convey to all intuitive 
enough or spiritually intuitive to understand the doctrines of this 
knowledge of the human soul. Organizations that once possessed 
4t lost it through their own degeneration and by falling into 
matter. Prof. Huxley was right in his book, The Ancient Religions 



146 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

of the World. I quote the idea rather than the exact words. 
On the next to the last page of The Ancient Religions of the World 
he says that the result of his investigations in these ancient re- 
ligions is to convince him they all came from one primeval religion, 
revealed to man from without. That is exactly the claim put forth 
by the Theosophical Society ; and those without the pale of 
humanity, that also applies to those very Masters, those Mahatmas, 
those ancient Rishis, those men who have at different times 
unveiled all the possibilities of human nature, and it was through 
them that this revelation was made in the first place, by them it is 
preserved from age to age, and I quote Prof. Huxley as saying 
himself, where he got the quotation I don't know, "that this 
philosophy was presented to the world by the Masters of those who 
know." There are not only those who know by actual experience 
of the existence and powers of the human soul, but there are those 
who stand above even those. Who are these Masters ? They are 
the Avatars, the Buddhas, the Christs of- history, and no greater 
mistake was ever made by the Western world on any subject than 
to suppose that the infinite goodness, that the eternal spirit that 
pervades the universe, was so poor or deficient either in power or 
resources that only 2,000 years ago he would send one of these 
redeemers to man. What was the infinite goodness doing through 
millions and millions of ages preceding the Christian era? 

My friends, we are living to-day perhaps in the oldest country 
on the globe ; the new country is nothing but the old world revived 
after one of these relapses or sleeps that come in the cyclic history 
of man ; therefore we are living to-day in what we call the new 
world, and we are taught in the secret doctrine that civilization 
has spread around and around this globe times almost without 
number ; we are the children, the youngest heirs of all this mighty 
past, and all the affairs of man, his governments, his civilizations, 
his religions, his philosophies simply follow the pattern of indi- 
vidual life. They are conceived in the womb of the eternal spirit ; 
they are born in the time of need in the life of the world, they 
reach their adolescence, their manhood, their old age, and finally 
they totter and die. That is the history of every civilization the 
world has ever known ; that is the history of every religion that 
has ever inspired the soul of man and led him to look up to some- 
thing higher than himself. Can we accept the statement that at 
this late day our religion, our philosophy, our science is the first 
and only one that ever gladdened the heart of man, and that we 
shall escape the universal destiny of old age and decay ? Then 
comes the rejuvenescence of all these civilizations in another form, 
and they are under the cyclic law which obtains among the 
heavenly orbs, with the moving of the planets and the suns ; and 
it is thus also concerning all human activities, his civilizations, 
his sciences, his religions, everything that pertains to his activities. 

Now the basis of altruism which is put forth by the Theosoph- 
ical Society you will see is based upon this Universal Brotherhood, 
and I hope that no one present here in this audience to-night will 
ever again make an assertion so inapplicable to the Theosophical 
movement as, in speaking of the principle of altruism announced 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 147 

by the Theosophical Society of Universal Brotherhood, by saying 
"That is nothing new." "We had that in other religions." That 
you see is pointless as directed against the Theosophical Society 
or our movement. Because the one strong point we make is that 
it is not new, and not exclusively the possession of any religion, of 
any philosophy, any civilization the world has ever known. We are 
told by those who know, there was never a time when it existed not 
upon the earth, in different quarters at the same time with barbarous 
nations, the half civilized, the wholly civilized, and finally those 
who through their altruism imitate the gods in their beneficence 
towards their fellow men. We don't claim that this is anything 
new or exclusively Theosophical. And certainly it is not some- 
thing that belongs exclusively to the religions of the West. The 
very first sign of progress I think that we should make is to be 
just ; not even charitable ; simply just towards the other religions, 
the brother religions of the world, giving them their just propor- 
tion of due, their fair and honorable recognition ; and when we do 
this we shall have found the same truths expressed in different 
languages to different people at different times, but all with the 
same great motive ; and therefore underlying all those religions of 
the world, whether past or present, everything that ever deserved 
the name of religion, you will find this principle of Universal 
Brotherhood announced by its redeemers, by its teachers, by its 
Avatars, and you will find altruism, the preferring of another's 
good to your own selfish enjoyment, the best ethics in all of these. 

Now, then, put these things together, it seems to me there need 
be no misapprehension as to the real motive for the organization 
of the Theosophical Society. It does not stand apart. It welcomes 
to its membership men and women, black and white, no matter 
what their creed may be, provided they have gone far enough 
in the line of human evolution, far enough above the animal 
plane and the survival of the fittest and the bare animal struggle 
for existence, to recognize the principle of Universal Brotherhood 
and to undertake to carry it out in their daily life in the best pos- 
sible way they can. That is all that is necessary for the needs of 
the Theosophical Society, and we therefore invite everyone, no mat- 
ter what his creed or belief may be, to join us in this movement, 
whether in the Society or out. The doors of the Society are always 
wide open, and there is certainly strength in co-operation, and we 
have kept this so designedly from all other matters whatsoever, so 
there can be no difficulty with the members of any church, or of 
any creed, of any religion on earth joining our ranks ; and so far 
as I know there is none of the religions of the world whose repre- 
sentatives are not also known as members of the Theosophical 
Society, working along these lines, laying aside everything else 
and endeavoring to bring about the reign of universal altruism 
and the Universal Brotherhood of man. 

I have the honor to announce that Brother Judge will now ad- 
dress you. I may say that while Brother Judge's name may not be 
familiar to everyone in this hall, his name is inextricably connected 
with the organization of the Society. He is at present the Vice- 
President of the entire Society of the world, and General Secre- 
tary of the American Section. 



148 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

William Q. Judge — Mr. Chairman ; brothers and sisters ; men 
and women ; members of the Parliament of Religions : The The- 
osophical Society has been presenting to you but one-half of its 
work, but one-half of that which it has to present to the world. 
This is the Parliament of Religions. This is a Parliament of the 
Religions of the day. Theosophy is not only a religion ; it is also 
a science ; it is religious science and scientific religion, and at a 
Parliament of Religions it would not be possible, indeed it would 
not be proper, to present the science of Theosophy, which relates 
to so many matters outside of the ordinary domain of the religions 
of to-day. The time will come when religion will also be a sci- 
ence. To-day it is not. The object of Theosophy is to make 
of religion also a science, and to make science a religion, so we 
have been presenting only one-half of the subject which we deal 
with, and I would like you to remember that. We could not 
go into the other part ; it would be beyond the scope of this 
meeting. 

Now, we have discovered during the last week, as many have 
discovered before by reading, by experience, and by travel, that the 
religions of the world are nearly all alike. We have discovered 
that Christianity is not alone in claiming a Savior. If you will go 
over to Japan you will find that the Buddhists of Japan have a 
doctrine which declares that any one who relies upon and repeats 
three times a day the name " Amita Buddha," will be saved. That 
is one Savior of the Buddhists, who had the doctrine before Chris- 
tianity was started. If you will go among the Buddhists elsewhere 
you will find that they also have a Savior ; that by reliance upon 
the Lord Buddha, they claim they will be saved. If you will go to 
the Brahmins and the other religions of India, you will find they 
also have a Savior. In some parts of that mysterious land they 
say : " Repeat the name of Rama " — God — " and he will save you." 
The Brahmins themselves have in their doctrines a doctrine which 
is called the "Bridge Doctrine " : that which has God for its aim,, 
has God himself as the means of salvation ; is itself God. And so 
wherever you go throughout this wide world, examining the 
various religions, you find they all have this common doctrine. 
Why should we then say that the latest of these religions is the in- 
ventor of the doctrine ? It is not. It is common property of the 
whole human race, and we find on further inquiry that these re- 
ligions all teach, and the Christian religion also, that this Savior is 
within the heart of every man, and is not outside of him. 

We have discovered further by examining all these religions and 
comparing them with the Christian religion, which is the one be- 
longing to the foremost nation of to-day, that in these other relig- 
ions and in Christianity are found certain doctrines which consti- 
tute the key that will unlock this vast lock made up of the different 
religions. These doctrines are not absent from Christianity any 
more than they are absent from Buddhism or from Brahminism, 
and now the time has come when the world must know that these 
doctrines are common property, when it is too late for any people 
West or East to claim that they have a special property in any 
doctrine whatever. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. I49 

The two principles which unlock this great lock which bars men 
sometimes from getting on, are called Karma and Reincarnation. 
The latter doctrine bears a more difficult Sanscrit name. 

The doctrine of Karma put into our language is simply and solely 
Justice. What is justice ? Is it something that condemns alone? 
I say, No. Justice is also mercy. For mercy may not be dissoci- 
ated from justice, and the word justice itself includes mercy within 
it. Not the justice of man, which is false and erring, but the justice 
of Nature. That is also mercy. For if she punishes you, it is in 
order that she may do a merciful act and show you the truth at last 
by discipline. That is the doctrine of Karma, and it is also called 
the ethical law of causation. It means that effect follows cause 
uniformly; not alone in mere objective nature, where if you put 
your hand in the fire it will surely be burned, but in your moral 
nature, throughout your whole spiritual and intellectual evolution. 
It has been too much the custom to withdraw from use this law oi 
cause and effect the moment we look at man as a spiritual being; 
and the religions and philosophies of the past and the present 
have the proof within them that this law of cause and effect obtains 
on the spiritual, the moral, and the intellectual planes just as much 
as it does on the physical and objective. It is our object to once 
more bring back this law of justice to the minds of men and show 
them that justice belongs to God, and that he is not a God who 
favors people, but who is just because he is merciful. 

The doctrine of reincarnation is the next one. Reincarnation, 
you say, what is that ? Do you mean that I was here before ? 
Yes, undoubtedly so. Do you mean to tell me that this is a 
Christian, a Buddhist, a Brahminical, a Japanese doctrine, and a 
Chinese one ? Yes, and I can prove it ; and if you will examine 
your own records with an unprejudiced and fearless mind, afraid 
of no man, you will prove it also. If you go back in the records 
of Christianity to the first year of it, you will find that for many 
centuries this doctrine w r as taught. Surely the men who lived 
near Jesus knew what the doctrine was. It was admitted by Jesus 
himself. He said on one occasion that Elias had already come 
back in the person of John, but had been destroyed by the ruler. 
How could Elias come back and be born again as John unless the 
law of nature permitted it ? We find on examining the writers, the 
early Christian fathers who made the theology of the Christian 
churches admitting, by the greatest of them, Origen, that this 
doctrine was true. He, the greatest of them all, who wrote so 
much men could not read all his books, believed in it. It is said 
in the Christian scripture that Jesus also said so much they could 
not record it, and if they had, the volumes could not be counted. 
If these teachings were not recorded, we can imagine from what 
he spoke and from what his early followers believed, that this 
doctrine was taught distinctly by him in words. (Applause.) 

It is the doctrine of which the Reverend Mr. Beecher, brother 
of the famous Henry Ward Beecher, in a book called The Conflict 
of Religions, said, " It is an absolute necessity to Christianity ; 
without it Christianity is illogical. With it it is logical." And a 
great writer, the Rev. William Alger, whose book, A Critical History 



150 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

of the Doctrine of a Future Life, is used in the religious educational 
institutions of all denominations with perhaps one exception, has 
written twice in two editions and said that after fifteen years' study 
of the subject he had come to the conclusion that the doctrine was 
true and necessary. 

Furthermore, we find that in these countries where Christianity 
arose — for Christianity is not a Western product — reincarnation 
has always been believed. You ask for human evidence. You 
believe in this city, not only in this city but everywhere, in a court 
of law, if many witnesses testify to a fact it is proven. Well, 
millions upon millions of men in the East testify that they not only 
believe in reincarnation, but that they know it is true, that they 
remember that they were born before and that they were here 
before, and hundreds and thousands of men in the West have said 
the same thing. That they not only believe it, but that they know 
it. Poets have written of it all through English literature. It is a 
doctrine that almost everybody believes in their hearts. The 
little child coming straight from the other shore, coming without 
any defects straight from the heavenly Father, believes that it has 
always lived. 

If the doctrine of immortality which is taught by every religion 
is true, how can you split it in halves and say, you began to be 
immortal when you were born and you were never immortal 
before ? How is it possible you did not live before if there is any 
justice in this universe? Is it not true that what happens is the 
result of your conduct ? If you live a life of sin and wickedness, 
will you not suffer ? If you steal, and rob, and lie, and put in 
operation causes for punishment, will you not be punished ? Why 
should not that law be applied to the human being when born, to 
explain his state and capacity? We find children are born blind, 
deformed, halt, without capacity ; where is the prior conduct 
which justifies such a thing, if they have just been born for the first 
time? They must have lived before. The disciples asked Jesus, 
" Why was this man born blind ; was it for some sin he had com- 
mitted?" When committed? When did he commit it if he had 
never been born before ? Why ask Jesus,, their master, this ques- 
tion, unless they believed the doctrine, unless, as we think, it is the 
true one and one then prevalent ? 

This doctrine of reincarnation, then, we claim is the lost chord 
of any religion that does not promulgate it. We say it is found in 
the Christian religion ; it is found in every religion, and it offers to 
us a means whereby our evolution may be carried on, it offers an 
explanation to the question, Why are men born with different 
characters ? We find one man born generous, and he will always 
be generous ; we find another born selfish, and selfish he will be to 
the end of his life. We find one man born with great capacity, a 
great mind that can cover many subjects at once ; or a special 
mind and capacity like that of Mozart. Why was he born so ? 
Where did he get it if not from the character he had in the past ? 
You may say that heredity explains it all. Then please explain 
how Blind Tom, born of negro parents who never knew anything 
about a piano, who never knew anything about music, was able to 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 151 

play upon a mechanically scaled instrument like the piano ? It is 
not a natural thing. Where did he get the capacity ? Heredity 
does not explain that. We explain it by reincarnation. Just so 
with Mozart, who at four years of age was able to write an orches- 
tral score. Do you know what that means ? It means the writing 
down the parts for the many instruments, and not only that, but 
writing it in a forced scale, which is a mechanical thing. How 
will that be explained by heredity ? If you say that among his 
ancestors there must have been musicians, then why not before or 
after him ? See Bach ! If Bach could look back from the grave 
ne would have seen his musical genius fading and fading out of his 
family until at last it disappeared. 

Heredity will not explain these great differences in character 
and genius, but reincarnation will. It is the means of evolution of 
the human soul ; it is the means of evolution for every animate and 
inanimate thing in this world. It applies to everything. All 
nature is constantly being reembodied, which is reincarnation. Go 
back with science. It shows you that this world was first a mass 
of fiery vapor ; come down the years and you see this mass reem- 
bodied in a more solid form ; later still it is reembodied as the 
mineral kingdom, a great ball in the sky, without life ; later still 
animal life begins evolving until now it has all that we know of 
life, which is a reembodiment over and over again, or reincarnation. 
It means, then, that just as you move periodically from house to 
house in the city, you are limited by every house you move into, so 
the human being, who never dies, is not subject to death, moves 
periodically from house to house, and takes up a mortal body life 
after life, and is simply limited a little more or a little less, just as 
the case may be, by the particular body he may inhabit. 

I could not go through all this subject to answer all the objec- 
tions, but Theosophy will answer them all. The differences in 
people are explained by the fact that the character of the indi- 
vidual attracts him to the family, that is just like himself, and not 
to any other family, and through heredity he receives his discipline, 
punishment, and reward. 

The objections to reincarnation are generally based upon the 
question, why we do not remember. In the West that objection 
arises from the fact that we have been materialists so long, we have 
been deceived so long, that we have forgotten ; we are not able to 
remember anything but what makes a violent impression on our 
senses. In the East and in some places in the West the people 
remember, and the time will come when the people in the West will 
remember also. And I warrant you that the children of the West 
know this, but it is rubbed out of their minds by their fathers and 
mothers. They say to the child, "Don't bother me with such 
questions ; you are only imagining things." As if a child could 
imagine that it had been here before if it had not been. They never 
could imagine a thing which has not some existence in fact or that 
is not built up from impressions received. As you watch the new- 
born child you will see it throw its arms out to support itself. 
Why should the child throw out its arms to support itself ? You 
say, instinct. What is instinct ? Instinct is recollection imprinted 



152 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

upon the soul, imprinted upon the character within a child just 
born, and it knows enough to remember that it must throw out its 
arms to save itself from being hurt. Any physician will tell you 
this fact is true. Whether they explain it in the same way as I do 
or not, I don't know. We cannot remember our past lives simply 
because the brain which we now have was not concerned with 
these past lives. You say you cannot remember a past life, and 
therefore you don't believe it is true. Well if we grant that kind of 
argument, apply it to the fact that you cannot remember the facts 
of your present existence here; you cannot remember what dinner 
you ate three weeks ago ; you cannot remember one-quarter of 
what has happened to you. Do you mean to say that all these 
things did not happen because you cannot remember ? You cannot 
remember what happens to you now, so how do you expect to re- 
member what happened to you in another life ? But the time will 
come when man not so immersed in materiality will form his soul 
to such an extent that its qualities will be impressed upon the new- 
born child body and he will be able to remember and to know all 
his past, and then he will see himself an evolving being who has 
come up through all the ages as one of the creators of the world, 
as one of those who have aided in building this world. Man, we say, 
is the top, the crown of evolution ; not merely as one who has been 
out there through favor, but as one who worked himself up through 
nature, unconsciously sometimes to himself, but under law, the very 
top and key of the whole system, and the time will come when he 
will remember it. 

Now, this being the system of evolution which we gather from 
all religions, we say it is necessary to show that cause and effect act 
on man's whole being. We say that this law of cause and effect, 
or Karma, explains every circumstance in life and will show the 
poor men in Chicago who are born without means to live, who 
sometimes are hunted by the upper class and live in misery, why 
they are born so. It will explain why a man is born rich, 
with opportunity which he neglects; and another man born rich, 
with opportunity which he does not neglect. It will explain how 
Carnegie, the great iron founder in America, was a poor telegraph 
boy before he was raised to be a great millionaire. It will explain 
how one is born with small brain power, and another born with 
great brain power. It is because we have never died; we have 
always been living, in this world or in some other, and we are 
always meeting causes and character for the next life as well as for 
this. 

Do you not know that your real life is in your mind, in your 
thoughts ? Do you not know a great deal is due to your own mind, 
and under every act is a thought, and the thoughts make the man, 
and those thoughts act upon the forces of nature? Inasmuch as 
all these beings come back and live together over and over again, 
they bring back the thoughts, the impressions of those they have 
met and which others have made upon them there. When you per- 
secute and hurt a man now, you are not punished afterwards be- 
cause of the act you did to him, but because of the thought under 
your act and the thought under his feelings when he received your 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 153 

act. Having made these thoughts, they remain forever with you 
and him, and when you come again you will receive back to 
yourselves that which you gave to another. And is not that Chris- 
tianity as well as Brahminism and Buddhism ? You say, No. I 
say, Yes ; read it in the words of Jesus, and I would have you to 
show you are right if you say, No. St. Paul I suppose is authority 
for you, and St. Paul says " Brethren, be not deceived; God is not 
mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." I 
ask you where and when shall he reap that which he has sown ? 
He must reap it where he sowed it, or there is no justice. He 
must come back here and help to cure that evil which he caused; 
he must come back here if he did cause any evil and continue to 
do all the good he can, so he may help to evolve the whole human 
race, which is waiting for him also. Jesus said : " Judge not, that 
ye be not judged; for with what measure ye mete, so shall it be 
measured out to you again." When ? If you go to heaven after this 
life and escape all you have done, certainly not then, and you make 
Jesus to have said that which is not true, and make St. Paul say 
that which is not true. 

But I believe that St. Paul and Jesus knew what they were 
talking about and meant what they said. (Applause.) So, then, 
we must come again here in order that God shall not be mocked 
and each man shall reap that which he has sowed. 

It is just the absence of this explanation that has made men 
deny religion ; for they have said : "Why, these men did not get 
what they sowed. Here are rich, wicked men who die in their 
beds, happy, with a shrive at the end of it. They have not 
reaped." But we know, just as Jesus and St. Paul have said, they 
will reap it surely, and we say according to philosophy, according 
to logic, according to justice, they will reap it right here where 
they sowed it, and not somewhere else. It would be unjust to send 
them anywhere else to reap it but where they did it. That has 
been taught in every religion ever since the world began, and it is 
the mission of the Theosophical Society to bring back the key to 
all the creeds, to show them that they are really at the bottom in 
these essential doctrines alike, and that men have a soul in a body, 
a soul that is ever living, immortal and can never die, cannot be 
withered up, cannot be cut in two, cannot be destroyed, is never 
annihilated, but lives forever and forever, climbing forever and for- 
ever up the ladder of evolution, nearer and nearer, yet never reach- 
ing the full stature of the Godhead. That is what Theosophy wishes 
men to believe; not to believe that any particular creed is true. Jesus 
had no creed and formulated none. He declared the law to be," Do 
unto others what you would have them do unto you." That was the 
law and the prophets. That is enough for any one. Love your 
neighbor as yourself. No more. Why, then, any creeds whatever ? 
His words are enough, and his words and our ethical basis are 
the same. That is why we have no form of religion. We are not 
advocating religion ; we are simply pointing out to men that the 
truth is there to pick up and prize it. Religion relates to the con- 
duct of men ; nature will take care of the results ; nature will see 
what they will come to ; but if we follow these teachings which we 



154 



THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



find everywhere, and the spirit of the philosophy which we find in 
all these old books, then men will know why they must do right, 
not because of the law, not because of fear, not because of favor, 
but because they must do right for right's own sake. (Applause.) 

Prof. Chakravarti : The Great Eternal, Ineffable One is rep- 
resented in one of the grandest Vedic slokas [quoting Sanscrit] 
by which is meant that there exists but one and one only without 
any duality. This is the key-note of the whole system of Hindu 
Cosmogony and Cosmology. The great Parabrahm, as we call it, 
is the essence by which the whole Universe is supported, by which 
the whole universe is permeated, which is co-extensive with the 
universe and with which the universe is identical. This is the idea 
of Godhead according to Hindu Philosophy. This is the highest 
conception of that essence which lives on from eternity to eternity. 

At the beginning of each Cosmic Evolution, this Eternal Essence 
breathes out the whole universe with the complete system of divine 
hierarchies, with the mighty drama, with the design of the whole 
universe in his mind, the Demiurgos of the Greeks, down to the 
minutest atom that there is. And at the end of the Kalpa, when 
the time comes round, there is an inbreathing, an involution, a 
drawing in of the whole universe back again into the bosom of this 
Parabrahman. This is the highest God according to all systems of 
religion ; this is the great Armitha, the Immeasurable of the 
Buddhists. This is the great God which cannot be realized by the 
Body, by the Mind, or by the Spirit, because it is Absolute. All 
human consciousness is relative, and therefore can have no con- 
ception of that which bears to it no relation. It is therefore the 
Great Unknown, and the Great Unknowable of Herbert Spencer. 
It is the Great Unattainable, the Great Sun into whose Light you 
might enter, but into which itself you can never pierce. It is, to 
express the simile of one of the highest English thinkers, one of the 
sweeps of the parabola to which the curve of human consciousness 
constantly approaches but can never touch. It is, therefore, the 
rootless root, the causeless cause of the whole universe. It sweeps 
from eternity to eternity. Upon its bosom there springs up uni- 
verse upon universe, system upon system, planet upon planet, race 
upon race ; and into its bosom merge again all that has been, all 
that is, and all that will be. 

At the time of cosmic evolution there springs up in its bosom 
the grand centre of a spiritual energy, the Sun from which as from 
a focus the universe is to proceed. As in the physical universe, 
light is everywhere diffused but is invisible until it is focused 
through a physical sun, so is this grand spirit diffused and eternal, 
and becomes active only when it passes through a certain centre 
which springs in Parabrahm. This centre is the God of all Reli- 
gions. This centre is the Logus of the Greeks, and this centre is 
the one which is spoken of in the Bible — in the Beginning there 
was the Word and the Word was God and God was the Word. 

But the mere postulation of the existence of a centre necessi- 
tates the existence of something beyond it, and that other phase 
which makes the individualization of such a spiritual focus possi- 
ble is the other pole of existence which is called Prakriti in Sanscrit, 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. L J 55 

or Matter. Then this forms the highest trinity of the Hindu 
philosophical system, Parabrahman at the head reigning supreme 
and arising in its bosom two different aspects coming out of its 
essence, the Purusha and the Prakriti, Spirit and Matter. 

From Purusha then emanate rays of light which are to be the 
basis, the Sun, and the Inspirer of the whole universe. Rays of 
light emanating from this Purusha fall upon different grades of 
matter, and, being reflected from these planes as from so many 
mirrors, give rise to lights of various degrees of intensity, which 
constitute the four great planes of universal existence according to 
our philosophy. 

The first great plane on which this light shines is called the 
Spiritual plane, or the plane of Sutratma. Light reflected from 
this plane is once more reflected on the plane of the Soul. The 
light after another reflection falls upon the lowest plane, the plane 
of physical existence called in our Shastras the Vashaiva Nara 
plane. This light, then, is the real source of all existence. It is 
reflected from one mirror to another, and according to the number 
of its reflections it gets distorted, losing its pristine purity and 
effulgence. 

Corresponding to these four planes of existence are also four 
states or planes of consciousness in the human entity. Four differ- 
ent grades of knowledge which function on these four different 
planes. On the plane of spirit functions that which is called the 
Karana Sarira. The spiritual body of Man functions on the soul- 
plane of man and is called Sukshma Sarira ; and last of all, corre- 
sponding to the physical plane of course, we have the physical body 
with which you are familiar and which in our technical language is 
called Sthula Sarira. 

The exposition of this philosophy will render clear to your 
minds that all these different states of existence, all these different 
planes of consciousness, are but reflections of one grand light which 
emanates from the sun which first springs up on the bosom of 
Parabrahmam. It is therefore the one source of all energy that 
manifests itself either on the plane of the spirit or on the plane of 
soul or on the plane of matter. True, its appearance is not the 
same in all these planes ; as a light which has to pass through sev- 
eral concentric glasses loses its brightness as it passes from one to 
the other, so does this light of Atma or Purusha lose in its bright- 
ness, its divine nature, as it has to pass through these various envel- 
opes which form the basis and the strata of the different planes of 
consciousness. 

The great aim, therefore, is to realize the doctrine that there is 
but one reality of which all these are different modifications, that 
there is but one source of light, of delight, of pleasure in the uni- 
verse, and all that we have on any other plane of consciousness, 
either of life or of knowledge or of joy or of harmony, is nothing 
but a more or less distorted picture produced by this one light. 
This is the doctrine which is inculcated at every step to a student 
of the spiritual knowledge of the East. You are first to discrimi- 
nate between what is real and what is unreal. The answer to the 
question what is real and what is unreal is, Why, all is unreal except 



156 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

that light which gives the appearance of reality to everything 
else. Hence it is that Krishna says in one of his most magnificent 
slokas, [quoting Sanscrit] " Whatever thou seest of beauty, of 
brightness, of effulgence in this universe, know that it is due but 
to one ray of my divine existence and nature." 

To find out that this is the source of all delight, never mind in 
what different aspects this delight may appear, is the essence of 
all spiritual teachings. A moment's consideration will make it 
clear to you that all the delight that you run after wildly does not 
arise from the object which you in your ignorance pursue. Why, 
even a flower blooming brightly on a stem does not shed into the 
mind of the poet, into the mind of the philosopher, and into the 
mind of the brutes that walk the jungle, the same amount of de- 
light. If delight really resided in that portion of matter that your 
physical senses are capable of cognizing, whence arises this differ- 
ence in the vibration of mental delight that it is capable of giving 
rise to in the different organs in the human breast ? The source 
of delight is really different to you from what it is to another; the 
strength of bliss runs from an inner channel the fountain of which 
is located in the sanctum sanctorum of your heart ; and when in 
your illusion you run after external things, why, you lose the very 
source of all happiness. 

It is from this delusion that comes pain. You think that external 
things are capable of giving happiness to your lives. You run 
after them persistently, eagerly, with the result that you dash your 
heads against the wall. Know you, that the same cup of pleasure 
cannot be tasted twice. The same object is incapable of giving 
even to the same individual the same quantity of delight at two 
different moments of his life. Once if you have a greater degree 
of spiritual bliss in it, next time there will be another drop of poi- 
son mixed with it. Why, then, run after shadows? Why not re- 
tire and run after something from which all that you have of de- 
light, all that you have of duty, all that you have of music and of 
intellect, and all else, proceeds ? And if you retire there, think 
not that you lose anything. No, because you cast off merely the 
dross. You retire to the centre of the living Waters, and once in 
touch with that eternal essence of all joy, you have all — much 
more — a great deal more, than any physical delight that the world 
can ever bring to you. 

A beautiful illustration of this is generally given in the systems 
of Hindu philosophy. A person, when coming to bathe on the 
bank of a stream, saw that in the bottom of the stream was lying 
a beautiful golden bangle. His avarice was aroused, his tempta- 
tion was aroused, and he thought that he would be so much the 
richer and the happier for possessing that beautiful bracelet that 
was lying at the bottom of the stream. He stripped his clothes 
off ; he jumped into the stream, restrained his breath, dived down 
to the bottom, and fumbled for the thing for hours and hours 
together. But his desired golden bracelet was nowhere to be 
seen. After hours of weary struggle, after hours of useless 
search, he came out fatigued, crestfallen, on the bank of the stream, 
and with his head bent with its despair and agony, thought of the 
useless hours he had spent. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 157 

In the meantime comes there one who was more observing who 
knew more about nature, and asked him what was it that had 
grieved him. 

" Why," he said, " there is that bracelet which is now under me, 
which is even now lying on the bottom of the water, and yet with 
all my force I have not been able to be in possession of that object 
I so earnestly desire." 

" Fool," said he, " Look there," and putting his hands over his 
head, made him look upwards, and up in the tree he found the 
golden bangle the reflection of which he had so long, so vainly, 
pursued. (Applause.) 

The man of wisdom, the man of knowledge, the man of dis- 
crimination, who knows whence delight, whence beauty, proceeds, 
looketh not, therefore, to find it among the various shadowy and 
misty reflections that delude you and deceive your eyesight. 
Right on, he marches upward, turns his eyes heavenward, and 
grasps the eternal verity, the real substance which makes life what 
it really is. 

This life, then, about which I have been talking is the reality 
which permeates the universe, which pervades all that is, and 
makes all that we have of beauty, of joy, of energy, and of life. It 
is present, though not to the same extent, though not with the 
same beatific expression, in the mineral kingdom. It is present in 
the vegetable kingdom to an extent greater than in the mineral 
kingdom, but yet not reaching any differentiation. In the animal 
it exists in an individualized — but partially individualized — exist- 
ence, and therefore we regard each animal as one which is pro- 
gressing toward this goal of evolution, as a candidate for all the 
grand perfection which divinity and nature are capable of impart- 
ing. 

And it is this light again which makes the light, the intellect, 
the spirit, and all that is glorious in every human being. Hence it 
is that Theosophy has taken for its first maxim the doctrine of 
Universal Brotherhood, similar to the doctrine of the fatherhood of 
God and the brotherhood of Man. But we go a step farther. We 
go even behind the idea of Manifested God. We go beyond the 
narrow circle of humanity, and declare the fatherhood of Para- 
brahmam and the brotherhood of the Universe. (Great applause.) 

Annie Besant. — In finishing this brief description of some of 
the leading Theosophical teachings, I have been desired to take up 
and deal with the Evolution of Man. Man, as you take him in the 
past, man as we see him in the present, man as he shall be in the 
future, the very first fruits of that future being men living on the 
earth to-day. 

Evolution in our modern civilization has been a word of power 
over the minds of men. Those glimpses that the West has got of 
evolution give us but half the story, draw for us but half its circle, 
and with a half truth give us an unintelligible, inexplicable mystery 
of a life that comes from no centre of this evolution, that finds no 
intelligible goal. For just as we see in our Western evolution that 
life appears, that a certain interaction of force and of matter has 
out of death made life, out of unintelligence springs existence, out 



158 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

of the brute springs man ; so that evolution springing from the 
lower stages of life is to pass onward and onward to an end as 
emotionally, as intellectually unsatisfactory as its beginning is 
wrapped in that of possibility of explanation. For in the latest 
presentments of science we are told that in this chain of evolution 
the latest link shall be as low as the first ; the gradual retroaction, 
the gradual degradation, until worlds evolved only from matter by 
energy shall evolve back again into uninhabited desolation, either 
burned by fire or frozen into obliviousness of life, until, disin- 
tegrated once more, they will be built up again in the far-off future 
of existence. 

Such an evolution, were it true, would be the dreariest theory 
of life that human mind could conceive — unintelligible to the brain, 
unsatisfactory to the heart. Far other is Evolution as we have 
learned it from the ancient books, as it has been traced for us by 
the Masters of Wisdom ; for they tell us of that spirit, to a descrip- 
tion of which we have just been listening, out of which springs a 
universe, the universe passing back, full of life, to expand into the 
Divine All-Consciousness. They tell us of an Involution which is 
the Source and the Fount of Life. Spirit involving itself in matter 
that it may become the mainspring of Evolution, and may grad- 
ually mould matter into a perfect expression of itself. And then 
this descent of Spirit into Matter — this expansion of Life from 
within, passing through stage after stage of evolution, reaches its 
lowest point in the Mineral Kingdom, thence begins the long climb 
upwards, thence, by expanding energy, we can pass onward, stage 
by stage to the early evolution of Man, Man as he appeared in the 
present phase of the earth's existence, first of all living things, the 
pattern of all forms, containing every possibility that that stage of 
the evolving globe was to produce. Passing from stage to stage, 
till the animal body was builded, till the astral form into which 
the physical was moulded was ready to gather the physical 
together and make a possibility of material human life. Then in 
that focused the life energy of the world, gathering to itself the 
forces which knit the molecules together and co-ordinated all into 
the astral and physical bodies. And then as the last touch of 
animal man, of this lower and transitory existence which was to 
be the garment of the soul, we find appearing the passional, the 
emotional, the instinctual nature, that which Man has in common 
with the brute, and out of which in course of evolution that part of 
the brute nature also took its rise. So that we come to a stage of 
human evolution where the animal side of Man is completely 
builded, the tabernacle of the flesh is ready for its tenant, the 
house of the soul ready for the incoming mind, and Man at this 
stage of his existence, nothing more than a beautiful animal, so to 
say, should appear in the possibilities of adaptation built into a 
similitude that would be able gradually to be moulded by the 
indwelling soul into a perfect instrument for expression on the 
lower plane of life ; and then to that abode builded for the mind 
comes the thinking entity, that is, the real Man, Man whose very 
name comes from the root that means thought, Man whose very 
name in our own tongue is identical with the Sanscrit word which 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 159 

is the root of thinking ; so that in our very title in the world we 
bear the impress of our special characteristics, that the human soul 
is the thinking energy, the thinker that makes the complete Man a 
possibility came not from the lower world, not given by material 
nature, not evolved from the astral plane, not given birth to by the 
lower life, not taking its origin in the passional, the emotional, the 
instinctual nature — Man's soul comes from above, not from below, 
not climbing upwards from the brute, but the focalized reflection 
of the Spirit. 

That is the soul that came to Man as animal and took nim into 
his charge, to build him up to the divine : for this thinker is the 
God in every man, the God who has evolved from Matter, the God 
who has descended that he may subdue to himself the lower 
nature and render every plane of existence translucent to a vehicle 
of the Divine. This God in Man is the teacher, the Guide, the 
instructor, the Helper, and also in his lower aspect the gatherer of 
experience out of which he shall build up character which he shall 
carry back with him to the higher work that lies before him in 
periods of existence yet unborn in the universe, that are still in the 
obscurity of eternity. 

This thinker, this God descended into matter, has a dual aspect, 
one face turned to the Divine which is its source, the other face 
turned to matter which he has come to dominate and to subdue. 
These are the higher and the lower minds, the rational, and, in its 
union with the lower nature, the animal soul in Man : so that in its 
double nature you have the aspect that is turned to the brute to 
train it ; you have the aspect turned to the spirit that strives ever 
upward towards union with the purely divine. And the whole life 
of man is the battle-field of that dual nature — the God struggling 
with the brute, in order that the brute itself may become divine. 
That is the way that Man evolves, that is the building up of the 
divine in the midst of the earth on which we live. Do you doubt 
that God is in every Man ? Do you doubt that the essence of 
humanity is divinity itself ? Men talk of others as sunk in evil. 
Men speak of their own race as corrupt, and by the very degrada- 
tion they ascribe to it they make it more degraded than otherwise 
it would be ; for we tend to reproduce the opinion that surrounds 
us. If we are evil and brutal, we tend then to take on, as it were, 
the character which is ascribed to us too often even by the religious 
faiths. But if Man be divine, if the very heart of Man be light, 
then you can appeal to the divine within the lowest, and know that 
answer will come, however muffled be the veil of flesh. Would 
you have proof that God in Man is present in the vilest, present in 
the most degraded, present in every son of man whose life seems 
that of the brute rather than of God ? Come with me to one of 
our English villages far-away from the ordinary haunts of men — 
a village which, once all beauty, has been defaced by the greed of 
those who possess it and the carelessness of those who live in it. 
We have some mining villages in our country, I am ashamed to 
say, where the lives that are lived are lives of the lowest, of the 
most ignorant and most degraded. Not all of our mining popula- 
tion are thus. Some of them are strong and self-reliant men, but 



160 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 






it is not of them I am thinking now. I am thinking of some vil- 
lages I know where if you walk down the village street you would 
find gathered in front of the public house men whose language 
soils those ears that hear it, who speak foul words, who are 
gambling, betting, drinking, finding all pleasure in the senses, and 
you would say, " No light of the divine is there." 'Are you so 
sure ? Wait and watch them as you wait, and as you are there, 
thinking how degraded men can be, how they seem to be nothing 
but the vilest of living creatures — listen to a sound there that 
makes every man spring to his feet, in order that with every sense 
alert he may hear the sound distinctly and understand what it 
means. There is a far-off rumbling that seems to shake the ground 
on which they stand. The far-off rumble that comes louder, 
louder, louder, till with a mighty clap as of a thunderbolt there is 
a crash, a roar, and a pillar of smoke that comes up from the earth, 
and from mouth to mouth the word flies, " Explosion in the mine 
below," and men are there, living or dead, one cannot tell. In a 
moment the whole village is alive, men, women, and children 
rushing to the mouth of the pit. There are cries of women who 
know not if they are wives or widows, wailings of children who 
know not if they be fatherless, and the strong men gather around 
the pit, the pit that is black with smoke, and unheeding that fiery 
death that is beneath, — there is a struggling at the mouth of the 
pit, men struggling with men, and struggling for what ? Come 
near them and you will hear the words that flow from their lips. 
" Go back, you've got a wife or mother. Let me go down who 
have none to care if I die." And the men who were swearing, who 
were gambling, who were drinking, hearing that cry of men in 
agony, forget their brutehood and remember the God that is within, 
and they fight to go into the cage, they struggle for the chance to 
sacrifice their lives for their comrades ; and down they go, down 
into the hell of the burning mine, to see if some burning comrade 
be there still with the life within him and they can bring back to' 
woman or to child the bread-winner of the family, the support and 
guardian of the home. Do you dare to tell me those men are not 
divine ? Do you dare to say that where sacrifice is pleasant, the very 
source of sacrifice is absent from the heart of man ? I tell you 
there is none however degraded, none however ignorant, none 
however vile, in whom the divine spirit has not His Sanctuary in 
the innermost heart, who shall not at length become pure as the 
little child with love that raises him from the mire of sin, and that 
energy of divine life which has in it the promise of triumph, how- 
ever far off that day of triumph is. And Man evolving by this 
inner force, life after life, makes slow progression till a time comes 
in the life of the man when more rapid growth begins to be pos- 
sible ; the time when the man by gradual evolution is beginning to 
understand the far-off possibility of reuniting, as it were, the 
higher and lower mind. When the upward striving of the lower 
mind is beginning to reach by aspiration that higher one of which 
it is the ray. When the higher mind, having worked for ages in 
human evolution, is beginning to be able to impress itself on the 
tabernacle so that that tabernacle is conscious of the indwelling of 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. l6l 

the God, and then there comes a time when the man thus evolving 
begins consciously to set before himself a definite aim to bend all 
his efforts in a definite direction, and there will be evil in the heart 
only or in the heart and lips as well, yet a conscious acceptation 
of Man's true goal in life, the service of his race and the giving of 
himself for Man. And then the man who has reached that point 
in evolution vows himself .to the service of all that lives, and puts 
before him for all future lives that may come to him the one object 
of growing so that he may help others, of learning in order that he 
may enlighten their ignorance, of strengthening himself that his 
strength may be of help in raising the world of which he is a part, 
and then the lives consciously directed become more rapid in their 
evolving energy, life after life adds more and more rapidly to the 
vision of the soul, to the power of the lower mind to respond, till, 
stage by stage, the story grows deeper and higher, till step by step 
the life becomes purer and purer and fuller ; and the last cycle of 
births is entered, which when completed will leave the man one of 
those who have triumphed over sin and death ; and when these 
last lives are beginning, one lesson comes from those who have 
already achieved, one special direction is given to the disciple by 
which his life is to be guided, by which his safety on the path is to 
be secured. You may read it in the same book that I quoted this 
afternoon. Those fragments of the Book of the Golden Precepts, 
that are the very hymn book of every true disciple, and there you 
will find that the law of life must be compassion, that the law of 
life must be feeling and suffering and enjoying with others, that 
no tear must be allowed to fall till the effort has been made to 
wipe it from the sufferer's eye ; but that every tear not wiped from 
the eye of a brother must remain burning on your own heart till 
that which caused it is removed. And then these lives of con- 
tinual effort for others bring at last the evolved Man to the point 
where perfection is reached and triumph over death secured. 
They lead him to the point at which, once more to quote the same 
book, " He holdeth Life and Death in his strong hand." He is no 
longer a disciple, he stands complete in knowledge ; he is no 
longer a combatant, the victory lies behind him and the spoils of 
victory are in his grasp. What shall he do with them ? How shall 
he spend them ? Weary with ages of struggle, what shall be his 
final choice ? He stands on the threshold of that world, separated 
from ours by difference of condition, which no bridge is able to 
span. He stands on the threshold of that state of consciousness, 
so misunderstood in the West, called Nirvana, that mighty state 
of all consciousness and all knowledge which no words can syllable 
and no heart of Man conceive. He opens the door that leads to 
that sublime condition. It is his by right of struggle ; it is his by 
right of conquest. His very foot is on the threshold of the door- 
way, and one moment he pauses ere he crosses the threshold. 
And as he stands there, Lo, a Voice, the Voice of Compassion it- 
self, sounds in his hearing, and he pauses to listen. " Shalt thou 
escape while all that lives must suffer? Shalt thou be safe and 
hear the whole world cry?" And in the silence that follows, the 
cry of the world is heard. Across the abyss comes the sob of 



t6l THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 






humanity, orphaned humanity, that is without guide and helper, 
and that sees one of its greatest passing out of sight. All the cries 
of men in agony, all the shrieks of women trampled under foot, all 
the wailings of little children in our world, make one mighty chord 
of anguish, and they cry to him to stop. What has his life been 
for many a life past ? It has been a life hearkening to every cry 
of pain that comes to it. It has been a life that responds to every 
appeal for help that reaches its hearing; All the life has become 
divine compassion. Can it be deaf when help is needed by men ? 
And in that silence, broken only by the sob of anguish, in that 
silence is made the great renunciation, the door of Nirvana is 
closed by the hand that opened it, from the threshold that might 
have been crossed the foot is withdrawn, and the Master turns 
back. He chooses the great renunciation, he chooses voluntarily to 
live in the world for the helping and the guidance of men. He 
brings back the strength he has conquered, the wisdom he has 
gained, the love that is his very nature, and he lays them all at the 
feet of humanity that he is willing to serve, — his knowledge for 
its guidance, his purity for its cleansing, his strength for its uplift- 
ing, his infinite compassion to have patience with its folly, forgive- 
ness for its wickedness, endless endurance till it learn wisdom also 
by experience through which it passes. Those are the men that 
we call Masters. Those, the mighty souls to whom we give our 
heart's homage, not because they are wise so much as because they 
are loving ; not so much because they are strong as because they 
are Compassion absolute. Those are the guides and the teachers, 
those the examples that stimulate us to work. 

Behind the movement which we have been considering for the 
last two days stand those servants of men, inspiring all that is best 
and noblest in it. I do not mean guiding its policy, I do not mean 
driving it along every step of its life, for they let their servants 
learn by their own mistakes, desiring not mere puppets that they 
control, but men and women evolving toward perfection. That is 
the strength that lies behind our movement as behind every other 
great movement for the spiritual good of men, for it matters not 
whether we know the Masters — they know us. And they give their 
help to every one who works for Man, no matter whether his eyes 
be blinded or whether they be opened to the light they shed. That 
is the secret of our strength. What is it that in this Parliament of 
Religions has drawn crowd after crowd at all its sessions, to learn 
the truths that a few amongst us have here been employed in im- 
perfectly setting forth? Youngest, you may say, of any movement 
as the world knows us, though in reality the oldest of all, what 
is it in this Theosophical Society, not yet in its twentieth year of 
life, which is making the eyes of all men turn towards it and mak- 
ing the hearts of all men ask what it has to give ? Men are hungry 
for spiritual truth. Men are longing for spiritual knowledge. 
They ask for a knowledge of the soul which shall not be based 
only on faith ; for a guidance in life clear and definite that may 
satisfy the heart and the reason alike. And this movement was 
started by those Masters of Wisdom to feed the hunger of the soul 
which the cycle of time had brought round again ; and they sent 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 163 

into the world their messengers that they might make this move- 
ment possible. Who is its true founder so far as the material 
world is concerned ? They selected, these great souls that stand 
beside this Society, a Russian woman, outcast from home and friends, 
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who went out from her Russian home, 
leaving wealth, rank, princely position behind her, eager only for 
knowledge of the truth and union with the divine life. Through 
many a land she travelled, through many a clime she wandered, 
one after another she examined the teachings of the world, till the 
eye of the soul was opened and the Master she served sent her out 
to do his work. Penniless she came back to the world. Told to 
go to America, she went to France — as far as her money took her 
— and there coming into possession of a few pounds, enough to 
land her in New York, but no more ; 3^et nothing could stay her. 
She went with the word behind her ; that word he gave her ; and 
she came alone and friendless to your country to face the material- 
ism of the West and to proclaim as alive again the true and ancient 
Wisdom-Religion. She was scoffed at and derided, laughed at and 
defamed. Every foul word that the malice of foul minds could 
image was heaped on her one head. They never thought she was 
a woman and had none to help her, and they did right, for that 
lion-heart asked no sort of consideration, and she would not use 
sex as defense against cruelty. She lived her life, she gathered 
round her men and women who got some glimpse of the strength 
that was within her, and the beauty of the divine life that she en- 
shrined. They tried to crush her with calumny, tried to destroy 
her influence. What is the answer ? The answer is that two years 
and a half after she passed away there are thousands of men and 
women scattered the world over to thank her for the life she lived, 
for the guidance that she gave to life. (Applause). They thought 
they had crushed her with their Hodgson babble ; they thought 
that they could crush her with all their Psychical Research So- 
ciety Reports, and the answer is that we are living to-day and we 
stand as testimony to her work, as witnesses to the life she has made 
possible for us. How has such a movement spread ? How has such 
a Society been possible ? Because of a spiritual life that lies behind 
it that no slander can wound and no power of man can touch. And 
to-day, to-day, those who made the movement possible glance over 
the Western world to see where some souls may be found willing 
to be helpers with them in the redemption of humanity, willing to 
share with them in the toil and triumph that lie beyond. Here 
and there there is some soul that catches glimpses of the light that 
shines from behind the veil, and gives itself in its pure measure as 
they had given themselves 'for men. Such are the helpers of the 
Masters. Such the co-workers that they are seeking, and not one 
of you but, if you chose to take the higher path, might make to-day 
your first step along the road, a step, it may be, feeble, uncertain, 
and halting, but if made out of love to Man and devotion to the 
spirit has in it the certainty of final success — is the beginning of 
the journey that shall lead you to be co-worker in the spirit. That, 
then, is the final appeal that from this platform comes to every 
man or woman ready to give himself for the helping and the saving 



164 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

of man. There are so many that want help, is there none to give it ? 
so few to speak for the spiritual life among so many that are sunk 
in the flesh. And this I say to you, that no joy of earth, no hope 
that gilds an earthly future, and no delight that comes of earthly 
triumph ; no such joy, no such happiness, no such ecstacy, bears 
any more proportion to the joy of the spiritual life than the fog 
that surrounds some mining village is radiant as the sunshine, or 
the pettiest joy of the gnat in the sunshine can emulate the power 
and delight of the intellect in man. 

For greater than intellect is spirit, brighter than Mind is the 
Supreme Life ; one joy, one peace inexhaustible. Such is the pos- 
sibility that lies in front of you ; for those who have got one 
glimpse of that, no earthly power has longer charm or desire. Be- 
fore the radiance of that divine life, all glory of earth is poor and 
dim. This is not matter of faith, it is matter of knowledge ; and 
everyone whose vision is even partly opened will tell you that that 
only is the real life, and that the knowledge of the Divine is that 
which alone can satisfy the heart of Man. (Continued applause.) 

Adjourned to Sunday at 8 p. m. y in Hall of Washington. 



Extra Session, Sunday Evening at 8 o'Clock, in Hall of 

Washington. 

The Hall was crowded long before the hour for opening the 
session, and on the platform with the speakers were many members 
of the Society. Dr. J. D. Buck had the chair, and said : 

This evening the session has been divided between several 
speakers who will each make short addresses upon subjects that 
are of interest to students of Theosophy. It was thought that this 
method would be more profitable and prove more satisfactory than 
any other. 

I now beg to introduce to you again Brother William Q. Judge, 
who will speak on the subject of Cycles and Cyclic Law. 

Mr. Judge — Ladies and gentlemen : This is our last meeting ; 
it is the last impulse of the Cycle which we began when we opened 
our sessions at this Parliament. All the other bodies which have 
met in this building have been also starting cycles just as we have 
been. Now, a great many people know what the word " cycle " 
means, and a great many do not. There are no doubt in Chicago 
many men who think that a cycle is a machine to be ridden ; but 
the word that I am dealing with is not that. I am dealing with a 
word which means a return, a ring. It is a very old term, used in 
the far past. In our civilization it is applied to a doctrine which 
is not very well understood, but which is accepted by a great many 
scientific men, a great many religious men, and by a great many 
thinking men. The theory is, as held by the ancient Egyptians, 
that there is a cycle, a law of cycles which governs humanity, 
governs the earth, governs all that is in the universe. You may 
have heard Brother Chakravarti say the Hindus are still teaching 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 165 

that there is a great cycle which begins when the Unknown 
breathes forth the whole universe, and ends when it is turned 
in again into itself. That is the great cycle. 

In the Egyptian monuments, papyri, and other records the 
cycles are spoken of. They held, and the ancient Chinese also 
held, that a great cycle governs the earth, called the sidereal cycle 
because it related to the stars. The work was so large that it had 
to be measured by the stars, and that cycle is 25,800 and odd years 
long. They claim to have measured this enormous cycle. The 
Egyptians gave evidence they had measured it also and had 
measured many others, so that in these ancient records, looking at 
the question of cycles, we have a hint that man has been living on 
the earth, has been civilized and uncivilized for more years than 
we have been taught to believe. The ancient Theosophists have 
always held that civilization with humanity went around the 
earth in cycles, in rings, returning again and again upon itself, but 
that at each turn of the cycle, on the point of return it was higher 
than before. This law of cycles is held in Theosophical doctrine 
to be the most important of all, because it is at the bottom of all. 
It is a part of the law of that unknown being who is the universe, 
that there shall be a periodical coming from and a periodical 
returning again upon itself. 

Now, that the law of cycles does prevail in the world must be 
very evident if you will reflect for a few moments. The first cycle 
I would draw your attention to is the daily cycle, when the sun 
rises in the morning and sets at night, returning again next morn- 
ing, you following the sun, rising in the morning and at night 
going to sleep again, at night almost appearing dead, but the next 
morning awaking to life once more. That is the first cycle. You 
can see at once that there are therefore in a man's life just as many 
cycles of that kind as there are days in his life. The next is the 
monthly cycle, when the moon, changing every 28 days, marks the 
month. We have months running to more days, but that is only 
for convenience, to avoid change in the year. The moon gives the 
month and marks the monthly cycle. 

The next is the yearly cycle. The great luminary, the great 
mover of all, returns again to a point from whence he started. The 
next great cycle to which I would draw your attention, now we 
have come to the sun — it is held by science and is provable I think 
by other arguments — the next cycle is that the sun, while station- 
ary to us, is in fact moving through space in an enormous orbit 
which we can not measure. As he moves he draws the earth and 
the planets as they wheel about him. We may say, then, this is 
another great cycle. It appears reasonable that, as the sun is mov- 
ing through that great cycle, he must draw the earth into spaces 
and places and points in space where the earth has never been 
before, and that it must happen that the earth shall come now and 
then into some place where the conditions are different and that it 
may be changed in a moment, as it were, for to the eye of the soul 
a thousand years are but a moment, when everything will be 
different. That is one aspect of cyclic doctrine, that the sun is 
drawing the earth in a great orbit of his own and is causing the 



l66 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

earth to be changed in its nature by reason of the new atomic 
spaces into which it is taken. 

We also hold that the earth is governed by cyclic law through- 
out the century as in a moment. The beings upon it are never in 
the same state. So nations, races, civilizations, communities are 
all governed in the same way and moved by the same law. This 
law of cycles is the law of reincarnation that we were speaking of 
to-day : that is, that a man comes into the world and lives a day, 
his life is as a day ; he dies out of it and goes to sleep, elsewhere 
waking ; then he sleeps there to wake again the next great day ; 
after a period of rest, he again enters life ; that is his cycle. We 
hold in Theosophical philosophy it has been proven by the Adepts 
by experiment that men in general awake from this period of rest 
after 1,500 years. So we point in history to an historical cycle of 
1,500 years, after which old ideas return. And if you will go back 
in the history of the world you will find civilization repeating itself 
every 1,500 years, more or less like what it was before. That is to 
say, go back 1,500 years from now and you will find coming out 
here now the Theosophists, the philosophers, the various thinkers, 
the inventors of 1,500 years ago. And going further back still, we 
hold that those ancient Egyptians who made such enormous 
pyramids and who had a civilization we cannot understand, at that 
dim period when they burst on the horizon of humanity to fall 
again, have had their cycle of rest and are reincarnating again even 
in America. So we think, some of us, that the American people of 
the new generation are a reincarnation of the ancient Egyptians, 
who are coming back and bringing forth in this civilization all the 
wonderful ideas which the Egyptians held. And that is one reason 
why this country is destined to be a great one, because the ancients 
are coming back, they are here, and you are very foolish if you 
refuse to consider yourselves so great. We are willing you should 
consider yourselves so great, and not think you are born mean, 
miserable creatures. 

The next cycle I would draw your attention to is that of civiliza- 
tions. We know that civilizations have been here, and they are gone. 
There is no bridge between many of these. If heredity, as some peo- 
ple claim, explains everything, how is it not explained why the 
Egyptians left no string to connect them with the present? There 
is nothing left of them but the Copts, who are poor' miserable 
slaves. The Egyptians, as a material race, are wiped out, and it 
is so because it is according to the law of cycles and according 
to the law of nature that the physical embodiment of the 
Egyptians had to be wiped out. But their souls could not go 
out of existence, and so we find their civilization and other 
civilizations disappearing, civilizations such as the ancient civ- 
ilization of Babylon, and all those old civilizations in that part 
of the East which were just as strange and wonderful as any 
other. And this civilization of ours has come up instead of going 
down, but it is simply repeating the experience of the past on a 
higher level. It is better in potentiality than that which has been 
before. Under the cyclic law it will rise higher and higher, and 
when its time comes it will die out like the rest. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 167 

Also religions have had their cycles. The Christian religion 
has had its cycle. It began in the first year of the Christian era 
and was a very different thing then from what it is now. If you 
examine the records of Christianity itself you will see that the early 
fathers and teachers taught differently in the beginning from that 
which the priests of to-day are teaching now. Similarly you will 
find that Brahminism has had its cycle. Every religion rises and 
falls with the progress of human thought, because cyclic law gov- 
erns every man, and thus every religion which man has. 

So it is also with diseases. Is it not true that fevers are governed 
by a law of recurrence in time; some have three days, some four days, 
nine days, fifteen days, three years and so on ? No physician can 
say why it is so; they only know that it is a fact.- So in every direc- 
tion the law of cycles is found to govern. It is all according to the 
great inherent law of the periodical ebb and flow, the Great Day 
and Night of Nature. The tides in Ocean rise and fall; similarly 
in the great Ocean of Nature there is a constant ebb and flow, a 
mightier tide which carries all with it. The only thing that 
remains unshaken, immovable, never turning is the Spirit itself. 
That, as St. James said — and he doubtless was himself a wise The- 
osophist — is without variableness and hath no shadow of turning. 

Now, this great law of periodical return pertains also to even- 
individual man in his daity life and thought. Every idea that you 
have, every thought, affects your brain and mind by its impression. 
That begins the cycle. It may seem to leave your mind, apparently 
it goes out, but it returns again under the same cyclic law in some 
form either better or worse, and wakes up once more the old im- 
pression. Even the very feelings that you have of sorrow or glad- 
ness will return in time, more or less according to your disposition, 
but inevitably in their cycle. This is a law it would do good for 
every one to remember, especially those who have variations of joy 
and sorrow, of exaltation and depression. If when depressed you 
would recollect the law and act upon it by voluntarily creating 
another cycle of exaltation, on its returning again with the compan- 
ion cycle of lower feeling it would in no long time destroy the de- 
pressing cycle and raise you to higher places of happiness and 
peace. It applies again in matters of study where we use the in- 
tellectual organs only. When a person begins tne study of a diffi- 
cult subject or one more grave than usual, there is a difficulty in 
keeping the mind upon it ; the mind wanders ; it is disturbed by 
other and older ideas and impressions. But by persistency a new 
cycle is established, which, being kept rolling, at last obtains the 
mastery. 

We hold further — and I can only go over this briefly — that in 
evolution itself, considered as a vast inclusive whole, there are 
cycles, and that unless there were these turnings and returnings 
no evolution would be possible, for evolution is but another word 
for cyclic law. Reincarnation, or re-embodiment over and over 
again, is an expression of this great law and a necessary part of 
evolution. 

Evolution means a coming forth from something. From out 
of what does the evolving universe come ? It comes out from 



l68 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

what we call the unknown, and we call it " unknown " simply be- 
cause we do not know what it is. The unknown does not mean 
the non-existent ; it simply means that which we do not perceive 
in its essence or fulness. It goes forth again and again, always 
higher and better ; but while it is rolling around at its lower arc it 
seems to those down there that it is lower than ever ; but it is 
bound to come up again. And that is the answer we give to those 
who ask, What of all those civilizations that have disappeared, 
what of all the years that I have forgotten ? What have I been in 
other lives, I have forgotten them ? We simply say, You are going 
through your cycle. Some day all these years and experiences 
will return to your recollection as so much gained. And all the 
nations of the earth should know this law, remember it and act 
upon it, knowing that they will come back and that others also will 
come back. Thus they should leave behind something that will 
raise the cycle higher and higher, thus they should ever work 
toward the perfection which mankind as a whole is striving in fact 
to procure for itself. (Applause.) 



THEOSOPHY AND WOMAN. 



MISS F. HENRIETTA MULLER. 



The subject I have chosen for my address this evening is one 
which appears to be coming to the forefront and calling the atten- 
tion of people in every country of the globe. I am not exaggerat- 
ing when I say that the position of woman is attracting more at- 
tention in the country of America than in any other. The women 
in America occupy a position which the women in other lands look 
upon with envy and which maybe regarded as unique. Why? 
Because we believe they are the forerunners of that which is to 
come. Here, indeed, it is true, and it is also true in other lands, 
that no religion and no philosophy presenting itself to the mind 
of the people for the first time to-day would be welcomed, or would 
secure any serious amount of attention, which did not accord to 
women a place of perfect equality with men. (Applause.) The 
time passed long since when a religion or a philosophy, placing 
men at the head of the universe and women at the bottom of it, 
would receive any serious consideration. And I wish to show you 
that that system of thought, that system of philosophy, that sys- 
tem of religion which to-day goes by the name of Theosophy, 
is just that one which accords to woman the place which the think- 
ing and the advanced minds of to-day require that it shall accord 
to her. 

When I first heard of Theosophy I was suspicious on this very 
point. Being one who had devoted many years of my life to the 
education, emancipation, and amelioration of the women of my 
country, I had for one to be satisfied that there did exist anywhere 
under the sun a system of religion that did justice to women. 
Therefore I was suspicious, and, when the time came that appeared 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 1 69 

to me suitable, I wrote to Madam Blavatsky asking her this ques- 
tion : Do women in the Theosophical Society enjoy equal rights, 
the whole way along the line, with men, or do they not? Her an- 
swer was : In the Society, which has Branches all over the world and 
which occupies itself with doing what is called the exoteric part of 
the work, beginning there and rising right up to the highest reg- 
ions of the Masters, who are occupied in doing spiritual work in 
planes beyond our reach and beyond our ken, from the top to the 
bottom, that which is counted as the factor is not the personality; 
that which is the thing, that which receives the recognition is the 
work that is done; whether it is done by a woman or a man is not 
asked. It is virtue, it is struggle, it is the desire to help, it is the 
labor accomplished which counts as the factor, and not the person 
who does it. She then proved to me by illustration, by giving me 
names' and by instances out of her own experience, that that was 
so. The point upon which I desired mostly to be reassured was, 
whether it was possible for a woman starting from the ordinary 
plane of life where you and I are dwelling, by her own efforts to 
reach to the development of the powers and to the condition of the 
highest adept. Upon this H. P. Blavatsky reassured me. For, 
she said, not only have there been women adepts known in the 
ancient history of India from time immemorial, but I myself en- 
joyed the personal acquaintance of such women in India and in the 
lands beyond India, in Thibet. She told me their names, she told 
me of their lives, she told me of the possibility of their still further 
developing themselves and reaching still greater heights of perfec- 
tion and power. 

I think that everyone here has heard, and possibly believes also, 
that the Christian religion has done a great deal for the emancipa- 
tion of women in Christian lands. It has not pointed out to us 
those avenues of development which Theosophic teachings now 
offer, but I think you will agree with me when T say that it has 
plowed the land and prepared it for sowing the seed, that it has 
done all that the world was ready for in this direction by preparing 
the minds of women for self-development, for self-dependence, and 
by teaching them that through their own exertions, by the light of 
their own intelligence and their own consciousness, they must seek 
to emancipate themselves, not only from the thraldom of their own 
lower nature, but also from the subjection, from the social and per- 
sonal subjugation they are under. But some of you will object : 
How about that wretched heretic Paul ? I don't call him St. Paul, 
although some people do. Paul, you know, says, " Suffer not a 
woman to teach in the churches." And Paul seems to pepper all 
his Epistles with bitter and biting things about women, what they 
may do and what they may not do, how we may dress, sleep, and 
eat ; I don't know what dreadful things he does not say touching 
us women ; how we ought to live, according to his own way of 
thinking. That is not Christian, that is Paul, and I think I can 
prove it. Now, what a clever man he was when he said, " Suffer 
not women to teach in the churches," and when he took care not to 
say, "Suffer not women to work in the churches " If the women 
in America and England did not work in the churches and chapels, 



170 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

I think in a month more than half of them would be shut, for 
although the women may not teach, they may work. (Applause.) 
For although we women may not teach the gospel with our lips, 
we may practice the gospel with our hands and our hearts ; there 
is nothing and no one to forbid us doing that. (Applause.) Why ? 
Because, as said, St. Paul was too good to shut us out from doing 
that. 

Well, then, he goes on to explain how and why it is that he says 
these things, and his explanation I think makes matters worse. 
(Applause.) He certainly does not speak as Christ did ; for com- 
pare the words, and still more the, dealing, of Christ with women 
and you will find an enormous difference, you will find nothing 
in common between Paul and Christ. Christ never says a bitter 
or a biting thing : nor does he ever even speak a reproof during 
the whole of his life, with one apparent exception I shall refer to 
presently. In order to bring out the contrast I will relate one of the 
stories of Christ's life ; I take the story of the woman of Samaria. 
The disciples had all gone away to buy food, and Christ sits down 
by the well and the woman of Samaria comes to draw water. She 
is a strange woman, uneducated, unknown to him, belonging to 
the lower class, belonging, moreover, to the class that was looked 
down upon by the Jews as outcast. Jesus talks out to that woman 
and begins forthwith to disclose to her not merely the simple, 
practical, ethical Christian teaching, but the deepest mysteries of 
the Christian religion He considers her worthy to receive them 
and her alone, for no one else was there. To her he teaches the 
truth that he is the life, that he can feed her, that she is to come to 
him for the living waters of life. He not only teaches her this, but 
I believe there is some foundation for the opinion that this woman 
w T as the first one to hear from that profound mystical teacher that 
God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth; and then he proceeds 
to explain to her the meaning of that saying. Upon this the disci- 
ples come back from the city where they have been, and, quite char- 
acteristic of Paul and the other disciples, they marvelled that 
Christ should have been speaking to a woman. Now, here comes 
out in strong contrast the attitude of the two. For women to-day 
are urged by the more developed teachings of Theosophy, as re- 
gards the possibilities of their development ; it is not because, but 
in spite of, the teachings of Paul, but it is and because of the teach- 
ings of Christ himself. And before I sit down I would recommend 
everyone of you here to read the writings of Paul and to read the 
history of Christ with that sole end in view, to bring out that point 
and to satisfy yourselves upon it. It will bring to you a flood of 
light and it will be to you a revelation of new beauty and truth in 
the character and teachings of Christ. IVty time is now up and I 
am very sorry I am not able to say something more. I should like 
to have said something more upon the subject of Theosophy and 
women, but I hope to do so upon some other occasion. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 171 



THEOSOPHY AND OUR CIVILIZATION. 



DR. JEROME A. ANDERSON. 



It were useless for me, dear friends, to attempt to teil you all 
about the message of Theosophy in the brief time which has been 
allotted to me, and I therefore will not waste your nor my time in 
any attempt to go over any large amount of territory or ground. 
I would rather go directly to the point and show you in a few 
words a few points in w T hich I think the message of Theosophy is 
of great import to the Western world. Now, if a man be a man 
and not a child, he will recognize his best friend in one who shows 
him his faults. It is well enough for us to constitute ourselves a 
mutual admiration society and tell how great we 'are. That does 
us no good ; it does us harm. He is our true friend who points out 
our weaknesses, who shows us those apertures in the citadel of 
our very existence, through which the enemies of our lives are lia- 
ble to penetrate and do us harm. Therefore I will endeavor to 
point out to-night some defects of this Western civilization of ours 
and in what manner Theosophy remedies or offers a remedy for 
those defects. 

In the first place let me say that in the teachings of Theosophy, 
as I understand them, there is no evil in the universe. All that we 
think to be evil and recognize under the forms of evil is due to ig- 
norance alone (applause), and therefore you will see how important 
it is that we do have light upon the problems of life, and in this 
way how important, because the message of Theosophy is giving 
light to the Western world. Now, let us examine our civilization and 
we will find that upon both the material and the intellectual planes 
we are in the habit of wrong thinking, that we are going in wrong 
directions. I don't say this in any spirit of carping criticism, 
or assuming higher ideas for myself as a Theosophist or for 
those on the stage with me. We are simply earnest students of 
human nature and the problems of life, and we want to know 
what is true and to avoid error, and on this line simply do I 
point out to-night what seem to me grave errors in our modes of 
thought, which lie at the very bottom of our civilization. 

Upon the material plane the great curse of our Western thought 
and idea is in the individualism or separateness of man from man. 
We are separate in every possible way throughout our whole ex- 
istence ; we separate ourselves from each other by caste, by color, 
by creed, by race, by country, and not only do we separate our- 
selves throughout all our lives, but when the last hour comes. 
w r hen death approaches, then we separate ourselves eternally in 
death. What a fearful idea is this, that we must not only be sep- 
arate here, but also be separate in the great beyond. For this idea 
of a separation both here and in the beyond, I believe we can in 
all justice charge it upon, certainly we cannot charge it upon a 



172 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

lack of philosophy, I was going to say upon the Christian relig- 
ion, but I will not say so. It is religion by which the great mass 
of mankind live and die ; and it is religion which teaches us to 
pray for ourselves, to work out our own salvation with fear and 
trembling. We have a couplet, out here in the West, at least, 
which expresses the idea, and that is this : 

" Oh Lord ! have mercy upon me and my wife, 
My son John and his wife, 
Us four, 
And no more." 

That is the very essence of our religion, and, thinking that way, 
you must see how it will penetrate down through the strata of our 
thinking, perverting all our ideas, giving us wrong conceptions all 
along upon the many duties of our life. We are taught to con- 
sider ourselves, to feel ourselves in this civilization to be Ishmaels, 
each one with his hand raised against his fellow man, climbing 
over each others' bodies, succeeding only because another fails. 
That is the attitude of the Western civilization upon the material 
plane of our existence. 

Now, Theosophy comes in and shows us that because of the 
shortness and the unreality of this existence we ought not to place 
our hearts here, that we ought not to live here in our ideas or 
anything of that kind. It seems to me there is no other way of 
killing out this immense selfishness, because the fact is we have 
been taught to believe we have but one life and no more after going 
from this life forever, and, that being so, it almost becomes our 
duty to take each other by the throats and get all out of life we 
can. Don't you see that if we have to live but once and wont come 
back any more, it makes it philosophical, reasonable, and logical 
to try to get all we can. But when Theosophy comes with the 
doctrine of many lives, with these lives under the law of cause and 
effect, teaching that the life in the present is the result of the life 
in the past, we begin to think and to consider that any evil we do 
in this life will return to ourselves in those to come, and so we 
begin to be careful, if for no other reason but selfishness only, in 
order to live happily in the next life. So we do right if only for 
the most selfish motive. Then the teaching of Theosophy in 
regard to the many lives which one must live upon this earth has 
a most wonderful effect upon the selfishness and individualism of 
this Western civilization. 

Our concepts of duty are all awry and wrong. We are taught 
to believe that we owe only duty to ourselves, or at most that duty 
only extends to our own immediate circle ; we work entirely in the 
sense of separateness, we work for ourselves alone, strive for our- 
selves alone. Yesterday in the other hall you heard a most beau- 
tiful metaphor from our Brother Chakravarti, wherein he pointed 
out to you the Brahmanical conception of duty. It seems to me 
that if we in the West can hardly rise to that ideal, we can rise to 
other ideals. I wish to point out to you to-night that which seems 
to me the conception of duty which Theosophy teaches to the 
Western world. It will be best given by relating a fable, and that 
fable is this : It is said that at one time there was a legend, or a 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 173 

story, or a belief in a beautiful city, one of the most wonderful of 
which the human mind could conceive, and in that city was to be 
found all that could delight the human heart in every way, and it 
is further told that there were three men who started out to find 
that beautiful city. One departed to the right and pushed grad- 
ually on. He was heard of no more. Another started to the left 
and pushed gradually on, for no one knew in what direction to go 
for this beautiful city. He likewise was heard of no more. The 
third started out as gradually as the other two, but befcre he had 
gone very far he found a suffering man and he stopped to relieve 
him ; he passed a little further and found another man suffering 
and relieved him also ; and so on, step by step he went, ever 
stopping to relieve the suffering he found on every hand. At last 
he came to the determination that he would not seek the beautiful 
city but would spend his life in relieving the want and suffering 
which lay immediately before him. (Applause.) But, mark you ! no 
sooner had he made this resolution, that he would spend his life in 
the amelioration of misery, when lo ! before him lay the open gates 
of that beautiful city he had started out to find. That is the 
teaching of Theosophy, that our duty lies to those nearest to us, 
it lies right directly in front of us, that it is dangerous for us to 
attempt to do the duty of another. We must not attempt to go out 
in far directions, to reach here and there, but to do that which lies 
directly in front of us. That is our conception of duty. It has 
enabled us as Theosophists to do that work which lies immediately 
before us and to endeavor to benefit humanity. In this way it is a 
conception to which we can all rise. 

Passing on from the material plane to that of intellect, the one 
great defect also upon this plane is that of not recognizing our 
own responsibilities for our own acts. In the religion of the West 
also, which I am sorry thus to seem to attack, we have had to 
depend upon another for our salvation ; we have been told that all 
the acts of our life could be forgiven away. This civilization can 
never advance and take its true position among the civilizations of 
the earth until all this is done away with. The law of cause and 
effect is a universal law and cannot be violated on any plane. If I 
put my hand in the fire it will burn me on the material plane. If 
I commit a vice or crime upon the higher one, my soul will be 
tainted, for effect follows cause upon one plane just as surely as 
upon any other. There is not one law for one plane and another 
for another. We must become philosophical, we must recognize 
the fact that that which happens by law upon the material plane 
must also happen by law upon the mental plane, and that we alone 
are responsible for our acts, and that no vicarious atonement can 
relieve us from that responsibility, and that there is no power in 
the universe which can set aside an effect when the cause has once 
issued into action. 



174 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



DEVOTION. 



MRS. ISABEL COOPER-OAKLEY. 



It is sometimes said, and said untruly, that in Theosophy there 
is no devotional life. This comes only from the lips of those who 
have made no deep study of the subject. There is in Theosophy a 
devotional life, as deep, as true, and as fervent as was ever taught 
in any religious system that has been known throughout the world. 
Now, I will divide my subject into two portions, the first, the 
general aspect, and then the particular application of it to us as 
Theosophists. 

You have all of you heard of occultism, and occultism is the 
very centre of Theosophy. Now, the word " occultism " in itself 
wants definition. There is a good occultism, and there is what is 
called black magic ; the first is white ; it is that which is good, 
wise, unselfish, pure, true. Black magic or occultism is that which 
is selfishness, in which persons try to gain for themselves only and 
try to develop themselves for their own personal benefit. Now, 
when I am speaking of occultism I am not talking of black occult- 
ism. H. P. Blavatsky in a very fine article draws a very strong 
distinction between true occultism and what she calls occult frauds. 
I am not speaking of a little clairvoyance, or a little clairaudience, 
or a little thought-transference, or a great many other little 
dabblings in what people call occultism. I am speaking of the real 
development of the soul life which belongs to that school of 
occultism that lies at the very centre of Theosophy. In India 
there are many schools of occultism. At the back of the Theo- 
sophical Society there is one school of occultism which is based on 
the very highest, most unselfish, and most devoted line of teaching. 
It is one of the inner schools which is taught by those Masters 
whom we know to be at the back of the Theosophical Society, and 
therefore, when I am speaking of occultism, I am not referring to 
any other school, any Western school, or any Eastern school except 
this one form of development of the divine light within man. 

Now Theosophy, as you know, is a philosophy and a science 
and religion, and therefore when it comes to deal with the very 
deepest part of the soul's life, it has not only the fervent aspirations 
of the religious systems which you know, it has not only the devo- 
tion which you see in so many other religions, but it has abso- 
lutely the scientific method by which the soul of man may be de- 
veloped, by which the soul of man may come into touch with the 
divine soul, which is the very life-principle of the whole universe. 
What is termed Yoga in India means the method by which the soul 
of man, the divine spirit and mind of man, may link itself with that 
divine spirit and life from which man comes, from which he is only 
divided by his material senses, of which spirit he is only a little 
shadow for the time being during his short earthly career. Now, 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 175 

in speaking of the teaching that we have in the Theosophical So- 
ciety there is one book, one priceless little book, which has been 
left to us by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, which was written for 
those whom she termed " The few." Why ? because she knew that 
it was only the few in the hurry and the press of the everyday life, 
it was only the few who would really stand aside from the stream 
of life and try to give some thought and some time to the soul 
within. She translated this book from one of those priceless 
treasures then in the possession of the Eastern teachers of Theos- 
ophy. It is called the Book of Golden Precepts, and from it she has 
gathered some few of the precepts which those who really desire to 
develop their spiritual life will take up and study. Dedicated as 
it is to the few, it is the few only who really find benefit in it. It 
is called The Voice of the Silence. The name is in itself paradoxical, 
but the name in itself is a volume of teaching. Is is the Voice of 
the Silence because it is only when the silence and the hush come 
over the material part of man's life that the real Voice of the 
Silence can speak. It is only when man will take some little time 
to still his worldly life, to still his worldly thoughts, that the true 
small voice w T hich really lives in the heart of every man may make 
itself heard. And therefore Helena Petrovna Blavatsky gave us 
this book, leaving it to the few who would listen in the silence to 
the voice that would speak, and she gave it to us as the guide, the 
prayer book, and the very basis of our daily life. 

The book itself is divided into three portions ; it is divided into 
The Two Paths, the two paths which are spoken of, and preached 
of, and talked of in every religious system in the world. Jesus 
Christ in speaking of the life of the soul spoke of the broad path, 
and said that broad was the way that led to destruction and nar- 
row the gate that leads to life eternal. Narrow is the gate also 
that leads to this life eternal. The gate is the narrowing down and 
crushing out of all the lower principles of man. It is, if we may so 
call it, the toning down of all the lower principles and making them 
one with that vibrating chord which is the keynote of that inner 
life. And when a man starts upon that narrow way, then there 
lies before him another w T ork to be done. Putting our foot forward 
only, and making our choice of the narrow way, does not clear up 
for us all the work we have to do. Then comes the taking of our- 
selves in hand, then comes all the struggling with Our selfish 
natures, the putting away of the selfish desire for life, the putting 
aside of all material wishes of this world ; and then we come face 
to face with what is termed in this book The Seven Portals. The 
Seven Portals are seven gateways which should be opened by every 
man and woman as they pass onward and upward into the devo- 
tional life in Theosophy. You have all of you heard of the Seven 
Deadly Sins in the Roman Catholic church. Now the seven deadly 
sins are exactly those sins that stand in our way ; those are the 
very seven deadly sins which bar our pathway ; they are analogous 
to the seven principles of man ; and those portals have to be opened 
one by one, just as the principles have to be crushed out, the lower 
principles, one by one ; and it is only as we open those portals in 
front of us that the development of the true divine life within 



176 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

really takes place. When the six portals are opened and we stand 
in front of the seventh portal, when the lower principles of man are 
all under control and we stand in the light within and it is trying 
to make its vibrating impulse heard within our hearts, then are we 
getting some little way upon that path which every great teacher 
of the world has talked about. 

Now, when the seven portals are open, when all these lower 
principles are stilled, then comes what H. P. Blavatsky speaks of as 
The Voice of the Silence. She speaks here, making the same divis- 
ion always made inTheosophical teachings, the distinction between 
the higher and the lower self : "The self of matter and the self of 
spirit can never meet; one of the twain must disappear; there is no 
place for both." There is no place, friends, for the self of our lower 
natures if we want to live according to the highest and the purest 
of Theosophical teachings. " Kill out desire, but if thou killest it 
take heed lest from the dead it should again arise " That means, 
even when getting onwards in this path, even when by means of 
daily crushing out our most besetting faults, even . when by daily 
meditation and daily aspiration we are trying to get some little way 
upon that pathway, we have to keep a watch over this hydra- 
headed monster of our lower natures, trying ever hard to crop up 
again into life, trying ever to crush down this gentle voice which 
is trying to make itself heard. " Kill out the love of life; but if thou 
slayest Tanha, let this not be for thirst of life eternal, to replace the 
fleeting by the everlasting." 

The fundamental teaching in Theosophy is this : All this work 
is not to be done for ourselves alone; the fundamental teaching of 
the devotional life is not to seek our own salvation, is not to get a 
place in that heaven for ourselves, but to perfect ourselves in this 
work, to purge ourselves of this lower nature, so that when the 
Voice of the Silence can be heard in our hearts we are then better 
instruments for those teachers to work through, we are better help- 
ers for those who are teachers, to make the Voice of the Silence 
heard in the heart of every man and every woman around us. Why 
not, friends, take some time in your daily life, every one of you, give 
up some little, some little time in which you may try to listen to 
the Voice of the Silence. Down through the ages those reproachful 
words of Christ, when coming out of his agony in the garden^ 
when coming out of the agony he was going through for all hu- 
manity, he turned around to Peter and said : " What ! could ye not 
watch with me one hour?" And in the heart of every man there is 
that note of reproach ringing from the Voice of the Silence within: 
" What ! in this material civilization, can ye not watch one hour, 
can ye not give up a few moments of your daily life and think of 
that life we are crushing out here ? Can ye not put out for a few 
moments all earthly desires, acts, and wishes, and give some few mo- 
ments for the Voice of the Silence to be heard in your hearts ?"' 
Look at it from what point you will, look at it how you can, that is 
the thing you will have to arrive at sooner or later. If you will not 
make it willingly now, you will have to make it sometime in this 
life, or if not in this life, at some future time. If you are going to 
live your life for yourself only, if you are going to live to help the 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 177 

material civilization to go on in the way it is now going, then you 
should give up your life to the material world and crush out that 
voice if you will, but you yourself in your next lives will pay the 
penalty, according to the Theosophical teaching. We can lay no 
burden on humanity by selfishness which we shall not come back 
and bear ourselves. For the sake of humanity what is the reason 
you cannot give up some time of your daily life? Every moment 
of your daily life that you put aside to think, even ten minutes, 
about this Voice of conscience within, even if you take but ten min- 
utes to let the spiritual side of your nature speak, you are helping 
all humanity, you are helping the whole world in a way that no 
material work you can do can help; because just so far as we de- 
velop our spiritual nature, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky taught us 
that just so far as we develop this spiritual side, we are helping the 
whole world upward, w T e are helping the spiritual cycle -upward. 
That it is only when the Voice of the Silence speaks in our hearts 
that we add to the Voice of the Silence that is speaking in the 
hearts of every man and woman that that work can harmonize with 
the divine life in the material world in which we live. And these 
are the messages she left to us, this was the book and teaching she 
put into our hands for all those who really want to listen and to 
learn the devotional side of Theosophy. It gives you step by step 
the way in which your devotional life should be led, it gives you 
step by step the thoughts, the work, the methods by which the 
Voice of the Silence can be arrived at. And with this message 
given to us by her to hand down to humanity, I say that it is not 
true when people say to us that there is no devotional life in The- 
osophy. It is there, it is there for every man and woman to learn 
if they choose to find it. For the Voice of the Silence lives in the 
heart of every man and every woman, and it is our fault, and it is 
a fault for which we shall have to pay if we do not let it teach us 
at some time or another. 



BUDDHISM. 



HEVAVITARANA DHARMAPALA. 



I am always ready to speak to an American audience. I love the 
American people, they are so good, so hospitable, and their voices 
I should say are so sweet. I like the American people very much. 
I am asked to-day to speak on Buddhism. I think we Buddhists 
as a whole love the American people. Individually I love you, but 
the whole Buddhist population in Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, they love 
you very much indeed. Buddhism is just now attracting the atten- 
tion of the West, of Europe's greatest thinkers in England, France, 
and Germany. 

Well, yOu will be surprised to hear it when I say that in 1824 
Buddhism was simply unknown to the thinking people of Europe. 
Dr. Marshman in 1824 said : " Well, Buddha, he must be the Egyp- 
tian Apis. There is no mention made," he said, "in any Indian 



178 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

philosophy about Buddha." So the only possible conclusion he 
could arrive at was that Buddha was Apis. Then Sir William 
Jones, the Orientalist, examined Brahminical literature and he 
found mention made here and there of Buddha. Well, he could 
not see anything beyond that he was an Avatar of the god Vishnu. 
He says, "Surely this must be the Scandinavian Wodin." He 
proved Buddha to be the Scandinavian Wodin. So matters were 
in that state until 1837, when Mr. James Prinsep and William Turner, 
both Oriental scholars, Mr. Turner was in Ceylon and Mr. James 
Prinsep was in India, examining into antiquarian remains in India; 
he had come across an inscription on a stone somewhere in a deep 
jungle; it was an inscription written on a stone in a character he 
could not at the time translate, and he thought it was an Egyptian 
hieroglyphic. He worked and at last he found that it was an in- 
scription written in the Pali character, sculptured some twenty-one 
centuries ago. He went to work and found something very start- 
ling. Just at the same time Mr. Turner examined Pali literature 
in Ceylon, and he found an immense subject, a large subject for 
study. It was a curious coincidence — Mr. Turner contributing his 
researches in the society of Asia, in the society of Bengal, and in 
the very month Mr. James Prinsep disclosed this Pali inscription 
and published his researches in The Journal. In almost the same 
month a great flood of light was turned upon a subject just then 
attracting the attention of the greatest minds of the day. It was 
the discovery of a great religion, and that was Buddhism. 

Well, in 1837 the great discovery was made, and to-day you find 
scientists, philosophers, and theologians, and all great men study- 
ing this great religious system. It was in the early days that Buch- 
ner said, if there was a materialism, it was Buddhism; it is full of 
materialism; and so the verdict was that it was a material system; 
and Max Miiller examined into its teachings and found that this 
Nirvana is annihilation, and he said Buddhism is nihilistic. Then 
came a deeper study of the subject, and Profs. Davids and Childers, 
great men, translated some religious scriptures in Pali and they 
proved it was not a materialistic system. Mr. Buchner thought 
Buddhism was surely nothing more than a system of Pantheism of 
the German type, and he said not only every Pantheist, but also 
every theologian, should study Buddhism. It is identical with the 
German thought. Then came the agnostics, and they found in 
Buddhism a system of agnosticism ; and Dr. Davids said in 1881,. 
Buddhism is nothing but a system of agnosticism, and he called 
Buddha the great agnostic philosopher of India. Then the study 
of pessimism began, and the students of pessimism, especially the 
followers of Schopenhauer, they said "Surely this is a pessimistic 
system," and they said Buddha was a pessimist. Now comes the 
last of all, the great Prof. Huxley. He says this is nothing but a 
system of idealism, and now he says that Gautama Buddha has 
gone deeper into the subject than all the modern idealists, and he 
says Buddhism supplies nearly one-half of the basis of idealism. 

So we are just now in a confusion. It is found that materialism, 
that pantheism, that agnosticism, that pessimism, that idealism, 
are Buddhism, and yet I think we shall wait, because the subject 






REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 179 

has not yet been profoundly treated ; this is superficial thought. 
Of course that is the verdict of those great scholars, and if I go to 
say the verdict is not right, they will say, " You cannot contradict 
those great scholars ; they are absolutely right." Of course they 
say, Buddha says, " I have no esotericism in my philosophy, I don't 
keep anything close fisted ; I give to all." Yes, but then we have 
to examine, and before you examine Buddhism examine the other 
religions, and then you will find that the esotericism of Brahmin- 
ism is made public property in Buddhism. Those who have read 
the Upanishads will find a certain great teacher called Yagnab- 
alkya. The man was asked by his wife Maitrya some questions 
which he did not reveal to her. It was only revealed in the secrecy 
of the chamber. And again when asked the same question, Why 
are we born, and why do we die ? the reply was given in secrecy 
between you and me ; no more, and it was given in privacy. All 
that was esoteric in the other philosophy, in Brahminism, Buddha 
gave out to the world. I may say that the Buddhist philosophy, 
or you may call it a religion, or a system, has two aspects, one a 
purely social aspect, and the other a complete system of esoteric, 
you also call it a transcendental, psychology, and the whole body 
of the writings mentions the associates of the blessed one. It is 
the school of the Initiates. In that sense the whole of this associa- 
tion is one compact school of Initiates, audto enter into that school 
you have to renounce all the world and its pleasures, and you have 
to take up a life of active altruism, and love study, and love thought, 
and to live a life, so to speak, a life, a pure life, absolutely pure. 
And then he says you will get truths. Buddha says not to bind 
yourself into any system ; if you do, if you have any preconceived 
ideas, he says you will not get truth. 

So get rid of everything you have got, all isms. If you have 
got pessimism, throw it overboard ; if you have idealism, throw it 
overboard. Let us be free, as free as crystal. The mind must be 
pure. He says : Don't have love to me ; if you have the love to me 
and you commence to study, you will not get truth. So first of all 
leave off all personality ; and he says accept truth for its own sake. 
If you are hurt when anybody scolds you, don't be offended or you 
will not then get truth ; you will not get truth if you are offended. 
So you must be entirely free from personalities ; and he says that 
through that pure life man will be that ideal, that consummation, 
so to speak, of all good Buddhists. That Nirvanic life, that eternal 
time, that possession, so to speak, of human understanding in this 
life ; and he says you can realize that state, but you must be pre- 
pared to sacrifice all you hold good and beautiful. If you love 
your watch, he says you cannot then get truth ; anything you love 
you must be prepared to sacrifice that; then and then alone truth 
will dawn upon you. (Applause.) 



l8o THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



THE HIGHER AND LOWER SELF." 



PROF. G. TST. CHAKRAVARTI. 



In the rush and stir of your daily life, in the ceaseless turmoil 
of activity of physical life, it is only natural that people should be 
perfectly unconscious that there is any self besides the self that is 
created by the sensation given rise to by the five senses of. the 
body. 

And yet sometimes when you retire from the rough rubbing of 
the world, sometimes when you are listening to the sweet melodies 
of a babbling stream, sometimes when you are looking with 
admiration upon the silvery blue of the starry firmanent, you seem 
to forget the life of the world ; the daily marketable life recedes in 
the background. All consciousness of the struggle with the 
various temptations and trials of this world leaves the plane of 
your consciousness, and you seem to sink into the vast profundity 
of some power, of some world behind you. You realize then that 
you are not the ignoble, mean, and grovelling creature, fighting and 
elbowing your way in the keen struggle of life against life ; you 
realize in the presence of that spirit that your capacities are 
infinite, that your future is limitless, and that you are the very 
angel of paradise thrust out from your birthright. 

It is not, however, always that people in the West have oppor- 
tunities to realize such a state of being. There is such a high- 
pressure life in the West, such feverish struggle for that which I 
cannot understand, that it is seldom, almost never, that you can 
retire into a sanctuary which is behind the external consciousness. 
Every one in the West seems always to be occupied with some 
occupation which is to deal with the physical relations of man to 
the world, or at best he merely works the lower aspects of one's 
intellect. Seldom therefore can he realize what lies beyond the 
mind in the Western nations. His life is like the remorseless giant, 
the Rakshasha, the giant in the deep ocean who extorted the 
promise from the person who raised him that he must always give 
him work — the moment he was unable longer to find him some 
work, "that moment," said the giant, " I will swallow up your 
whole being into my stomach." The mind which you have been 
given has been pursued on this physical plane, and is now that 
hydra-headed monster which demands from you work, work, 
ceaseless and constant ; and the moment you do not give him 
work he threatens you with annihilation. You stand aghast at 
what lies beyond. There is a gap indeed between the mental 
plane and the plane of the soul, and you look at that chasm and 
your head reels, for you cannot look beyond. 

But allow me to tell you that if you look deep enough into that 
chasm you can find the living immortal waters of life which can 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. l8l 

make you happier, nobler, sublimer beings than you can ever be 
if you are occupied as you are on the plane of the mind. You are 
familiar, ladies and gentlemen, with that phenomenon in objects 
which is called total reflection. As long as the proper angle is not 
reached, a ray of light passing through a medium becomes dis- 
torted, and you have an inaccurate picture of the object ; but only- 
give the perfect angle to the ray of light, let it come to the point 
of the critical angle, and loand behold ! the distortion and refrac- 
tion give place to the most beautiful reflection — perfect and total 
reflection, as it is technically called. So is it with the mind. At 
first when you withdraw from the mental plane you feel a depres- 
sion, a desolation, a despair, a longing for something upon which 
you can stand. But only go one step further, only try to extort 
from nature the richness, the wealth which it holds in store for 
you, and that feeling of depression will be driven away, the giant 
which once threatened to swallow you up will fall at your feet, and 
you will rise triumphant with the knowledge of having conquered, 
the knowledge of having acquired the birthright of the spiritual 
possession. 

In the East, however, where there is not such a keen struggle 
for life, men can oftener retire from the plane of mental conscious- 
ness. In fact it is ordained in the daily religious duties of the 
Hindus that they should spend at least half an hour twice a day 
in reflection on the Divine ; and the conditions under which this 
has to be done are laid down. It is recommended that he should 
sit, if possible, on the banks of a silent stream at a time when day 
joins hands with night, when the stars are just disappearing or just 
appearing, and then there will flow into him an ineffable calm. He 
puts his soul en rapport with the soul of the great nature which is 
the true source of all happiness. He instils into his mind the real 
poetry of existence, the real romance of the universe. Hence it is 
that in all the great religious systems poetry and prophecy have 
meant the same thing ; and I need hardly remind you that the 
Latin word vates means both a prophet and a poet ; and in the 
majestic language of the Sanscrit philosophies one of the names of 
the highest Divine Being himself is Kavin Paranim, the ancient 
poet. Yes, by withdrawing himself from the outer consciousness 
in which man has crystallized his w T ill being, and by throwing him- 
self on the bosom of mother nature, he realizes that there is some 
essence, some portion of himself which is the true essence of his be- 
ing, and in whose light alone he can find peace and comfort. This 
is the higher self of which I am to talk to you to-night ; this is the 
real self of the man, which decayeth not, which is the primitive 
portion of his being, not that which but appears and disappears 
in forms clothed in incarnation and reincarnation, but that higher 
self which is not touched by external changes, which has on it to- 
day a fresh garment and to-morrow casts it off in order to have a 
better and more suitable one. So it is this higher self which to- 
morrow passes on to a more suitable habitation — so says the 
Bhagavad Gita, this immortal self of yourself is not burned by 
fire, is not drowned by water, is not slain by the slayer's knife, but 
all defies the various effects that can be produced by anything 



l82 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

physical. It is the aim of every human being, therefore, to bring 
his lower self into consonance with the higher. 

We know so little about the higher self because the lower self 
is not prepared to receive any vibrations that are evoked in the 
higher. You are aware that it is a law of acoustics, in order that 
a string may catch the vibration of any sound it must be tuned in 
order to be moved by that sound. Similarly it is with the brain con- 
sciousness. Your brain is so materialized, so ossified, so deadened 
to all that is subtle, ethereal, and noble, that it no longer vibrates 
in response to the waves that emanate from the higher self. It is 
the duty of every man, therefore, if he is to learn anything of this 
higher life, to so train his brain, so to train his lower consciousness, 
that he may be able to catch these vibrations of the higher self. 
This is what is meant by self-control. The very word self-control 
shows that there is a higher self which has to control the lower. 
This is the great moral principle of which Kant speaks as one of 
the two things which fill him with awe. This reunion of the lower 
self with the higher is the great truth, the mystical verity that is 
represented in all the great religious systems of the world by beau- 
tiful allegories and fables. This is the meaning of the fall of Adam 
from his paradise, and the regaining of the paradise through Christ 
who represents the higher self. This is the meaning of Proserpine 
gathering flowers, being carried away by Pluto who represents the 
lower self, and of being regained almost by her husband. This 
great truth is also represented by many, I think hundreds, of beau- 
tiful allegories in the great Sanscrit literature of the East. I shall 
take the liberty, with the permission of the chairman, to narrate to 
you one which appears to me to be one of the most beautiful that 
can be found in any literature existing on the face of the earth. 

My object in quoting this one to you is to show how in the 
East they make a harmonious blending of higher spiritual truths 
with instruction for the common people who cannot follow the 
real esoteric side of things. In the story you will find ordinary 
duties of life, ordinary virtues which every man has to observe and 
possess, brought out in resplendent beauty, and at the same time 
below the surface it conceals one of the deepest and grandest spir- 
itual mystical truths that you can learn. Another object is to 
show to you by the help of one illustration that our books teem 
with literature which has an esoteric aspect to it. Max Miiller, as 
my brother Dharmapala has told you, denies that in the East there 
is an esotericism. No greater mistake, no more preposterous, no 
more disgraceful injustice to the sacred literature of the East can 
be perpetrated than by the assertion that there is no esoteric side 
to the teachings of the East. I shall go on now to narrate the 
story that I have in mind, and I shall leave it to you to judge 
whether the esoteric side which I. shall present to you of that story 
is forced or is natural. 

In olden days there lived a princess, the daughter of a great 
king. Her beauty was well known throughout the world, and she 
was endowed with all the virtues recounted in the Shastras which 
should adorn the female sex. There also was in the neighborhood 
another king who had lost all his kingdom and had retired with 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 1 83 

his wife and son into a dreary dense jungle, living a life of misery, 
of desolation, and of discomfort, and, what is more, he was blind 
also. Nature could afford to him not one moment of delight or of 
beatific vision. 

This princess when she attained the age of marriage was con- 
sulted by her father as to whom she was going to marry, for in 
ancient India the girl was allowed to make her own choice quite 
as much as now in the West. The girl replied that she had set 
her heart upon the son of the blind and exiled king living in the 
wilderness. The son's name was Satya Ram. In the ancient times 
nothing was done by the princes without consulting the great 
Rishis of old. The king therefore invoked Narada and asked him 
if the choice of his daughter was well and was likely to bring hap- 
piness to her. The sage with his vision prophetic looked into the 
future and said that no person wandered the earth who was nobler 
or more virtuous than the son of the exiled king, but that there 
was one great objection to the choice — that he would die within 
three months after the marriage. The king, the father of the 
princess, at once made up his mind and said, " This one defect is 
quite enough to outweigh all the load of virtues that you have 
recounted," and asked his daughter what she thought of the posi- 
tion. In India you must remember that a person can marry once 
alone. And the daughter said, " I have mentally made my choice. 
I have given my heart to my intended. Not more than once can 
a woman marry. I shall stick to my resolution. I shall be loyal 
to my thought, I shall be devoted to my future husband ; come 
what might, I shall marry the man whom I have fixed upon." 

The father knowing the virtuous character of his daughter 
allowed her to have her choice. She was duly married and brought 
to the exiled home of her husband. There with her many virtues 
of charity, loving kindness, and devotion she soon won the affections 
of her husband and of her father-in-law. Time went on happily 
enough until near came the prophecied day of the husband's 
death. Three days before the appointed day, the wife, whose 
name was Savitree, began to fast — made a rigid vow for the welfare 
of her husband. The father-in-law knew her to be delicate and 
said that she was not capable of making such a long fast — a fast of 
three days and performing such a rigid vow of abstinence. But she 
was determined ; she asked permission to go on, and she was 
allowed to undertake the vow. 

On the third day, the day appointed for the death of her 
husband, she prayed that she might be allowed to go with her 
husband into the wilderness where he went daily to fell wood for 
the use of the family. 

This startled both the father-in-law and the mother-in-law. 
They said " Child, thou art too delicate to wander thy way 
through the thorny paths of this jungle, thou must stay home. 
No such proposition can be entertained." But she insisted upon 
following him. She said, "This day I must go with him, I cannot 
stay back," and she who never made any request was allowed to 
have her way in this particular. 

Away both of them went into the jungle, the husband and wife, 



154 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

till they reached the appointed spot where the wood was to be 
felled, and immediately after the husband got a throbbing pain in 
the head and very soon fell senseless in the lap of his wife. The 
wife nursed him in her bosom till the last wave of life seemed to be 
ebbing away from the frame of the husband. Then appeared, 
after the life was gone, Yama, King of Death, to take away the 
life of the husband. Seeing Yama, Savitree, the wife, said, 
"Why, the Lord of Death, why come you yourself from your 
mighty throne to take this man away, and did not send one of 
your ministers?" The reply was, "The magnetic purity of the 
devoted wife is too strong to allow any of my subordinates to 
approach within miles of its presence. It therefore required the 
King of Death himself to come down from his throne to perform 
this work." 

When Death began to take the life away, this devoted wife 
followed Death as he carried her husband through the wilderness, 
and she was asked "Why followest thou now ? Thy duties to thy 
husband are over, wend back thy way home." But she persisted, 
said such words of wisdom, saying that no duties to her were 
greater than serving her lord. Nothing that the home could 
give her back by returning would make up for the loss of her 
husband. She persisted in following Yama. Yama, attacked by 
her sweet word's and her unflinching devotion, said, " You may ask, 
save the life of your husband, any boon, and I will give it to you." 
She said, "My father is deprived of his kingdom. The first boon 
that I ask of you is that he shall return to his kingdom and regain 
his wealth." 

"Granted," said Yama. " Now you shall go back." 
Still she pursued Yama, still she refused to go back, again she 
used such sweet words of wisdom, poured forth such expressions 
of unflinching devotion to her husband into the ears of Yama, that 
he was induced to grant her a second boon, and she said, " My 
father-in-law has lost the power of sight. My prayer is that sight 
be given back to him." 

" It shall be so," again said Yama, " now go thou back." 
Yet she pursued. She was not to be sent away without having 
accomplished her end. She prayed that she might have a hundred 
beautiful and strong children from her womb. 

The Death, forgetting for the moment in the sweetness of her 
voice, said, " Granted is thy prayer." Immediately the next moment 
turns around this ideal of chastity and says to Yama, " Lord of 
Death, knowest thou what thou hast just now granted ? Knowest 
thou that a Hindu wife can never go to a second husband ? 
Knowest thou that my prayer cannot be granted unless my 
husband comes back to life ? Thou art the minister of justice. 
Thou canst not speak untruth, therefore my last boon is the life of 
my husband." 

Startled, confused beyond all comprehension, the mighty Death 
shook down his head and said, " Take thy husband back. Thy 
chastity has taken back from the very home of death the life 
which has already become its own. Thy chastity will remain the 
ideal for generations and generations for women to follow." 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 185 

Returned she back home with the life of her husband. They all 
regained their lost kingdom, the father-in-law regained his lost 
sight, and once more they reigned peacefully. 

This is the exoteric story ; this outside aspect of it is enough to 
offer an ideal of devotion, of purity, of chastity, to any civilized 
community that has existed on the face of the earth. But there 
is an esoteric aspect which is even sublimer than this. 

Savitri in the Sanscrit language means the daughter of Savarta, 
which means the spiritual sun, Savitri therefore means the spiritual 
soul of man which emanates from the great spiritual sup of which 
I spoke to you last night. Marriage of this spiritual daughter to 
Sakravan represents the marriage of a spirit to the lower self, to 
the personality of the man. Sakravan was the son of the king who 
had lost country and sight. What does it represent ? That the 
personality of man is the creation of the human mind which has 
lost all its kingdom of paradise which has flown from it. It has 
also lost all its sight which allows it to look into that heaven from 
which it has fallen. The marriage of the spiritual soul with this 
lower self then brings about the happiness of life, and at the very 
moment when the destruction of the lower self might have been 
achieved by its devotion to matter, comes the help of the higher 
self, the spiritual self, the daughter of the spiritual sun, to save 
man, the personal man ; and not only to save him but to regain 
for the human mind all the wealth and all the kingdom that it has 
lost, and that spiritual insight which it had been deprived of. 
This, then, is the real meaning of this grand allegory, and this the 
meaning of all the various other allegories that the different systems 
of religion are found teeming with. The great object therefore of 
your life must be to direct your gaze inward, bend down your ears 
to the voice of the divine mother which ever crieth in mellifluous 
strains to be heard by you, but whose sweet voice you hear not. 
If you once but catch those sweet strains, if you kneel at her feet 
and say " Mother, save me," she will take you in her lap, wash all 
the thousand wounds that your self has been penetrated by, and 
lull you into gentle sleep in her bosom, and then you can go on 
through the trials and turmoils of life with a peace abiding in your 
breast that can be found nowhere save in the bosom of that Great 
Mother. 



i86 



THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 



THE SUPREME DUTY. 



ANNIE BESANT. 



I speak to-night on the supreme duty. I proclaim to-night 
the universal law of life ; for only by service is fulness of life 
made possible, to the service of man the whole of the universe 
to-day is yoked. For under the name of man, man past, present, 
and future, man evolving up to the divine man, eternal, immortal, 
indestructible, that is the service to which every individual should 
be pledged, that the object of life, that the fashion of evolution ; 
and I shall try to put for you to-night in few words something of 
the elements of this service, something of its meaning in daily life, 
as well as something of the heights whereto the daily practice may 
at length conduct the human soul, for poor indeed is that religion 
which cannot teach the men and the women of the world the duty 
of daily life, and yield to them inspiration which shall aid them 
in their upward climbing to the light. 

Great is philosophy which moulds the minds of men, great is 
science which gives light of knowledge to the world ; but greater 
than all is religion which teaches man his duty, which inspires 
man with strength to accomplish it ; greatest of all is that knowl- 
edge of the human soul which makes daily service the path of 
progress and finds in the lowest work the steps that lead to the 
highest achievement. 

According to the philosophy which we stand here to represent, 
we have in the universe and in man various planes of being, seven- 
fold in their full enumeration. A briefer classification will serve 
me for the hints which alone I can throw out to-night. Let us 
take the plane of the physical man and see what on that plane the 
service of man may connote. First of all, the service of man im- 
plies what was called by the Buddha right livelihood, that is, right 
fashion of gaining ordinary life, honest way of gaining the means 
of ordinary existence. Not a livelihood based on the compelled 
service of others, not a livelihood which takes everything and 
gives nothing back, not a livelihood which stretches out its hands 
to grasp and closes its fists when gift is asked instead of gain. 
Right livelihood implies honesty of living, and honesty implies 
that you give as much as you take, that you render back more 
than you receive, that you measure your work by your power of 
service, not by your power of compulsion. That the stronger your 
brain the greater your duty to help, that the higher your position 
the more imperative the cry to bend that position to the service of 
human need. Right livelihood is based on justice. Right liveli- 
hood is made beautiful by love, and if there is to be a reckoning 
between the giving and the taking, then let the scale of giving 
weigh the heavier, and give to man far more than you take from 
him. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 187 

But on the material plane more is asked of you than the dis- 
charge of this part of duty, right livelihood, that injures none and 
serves all. You have also a duty of right living that touches on 
the plane of the body, by which I include to-night the whole of 
the transitory part of man, and right living means the recognition 
of the influence that you bring to bear upon the world by the 
whole of your lower nature as well as by the higher. It implies 
the understanding of the duty that the body of each bears to the 
bodies of all, for you cannot separate your bodies from the bodies 
amidst which you live, since constant interchange is going on be- 
tween them. Tiny lives that build up you to-day help to build up 
another to-morrow, and so the constant interaction and interweav- 
ing of these physical molecules proceed. What use do you make 
of your body ? Do you say " It is mine. I can do with it as I will. 
Shall not a man do as he will with his own ? " Even so. But 
there is nothing a man has that is his own, for all belongs to that 
greater man, the aggregate humanity, and the fragments have no 
rights that go against the claim of service to the whole. So that 
you are responsible for the use that you make of your bodies. If 
when these tiny lives come into your charge you poison them with 
alcohol, you render them coarse and gross with over-luxurious 
living and send them out into the community of which you form 
a part, and send them out to other men and women and children, 
they sow there the seeds of the vices they have learned from you, 
of the gluttony, of the intemperance, the impurity of living that 
you have stamped on them while they remained as part of your 
own body. You have no right to do it. No excuse can bear you 
guiltless of the crime. There are drunkards amongst us. Granted 
they are responsible for their crime, but also every human being is 
responsible for them who helps to spread the poison in a com- 
munity which is focalized in those miserable creatures. And so 
every atom that you send out alcohol-poisoned from yourself helps 
to make drunkenness more permanent, helps to make its grip 
tighter upon the victims already in its grasp, and you are guilty 
of your brother's degradation if you do not supply pure atoms of 
physical life to build up others who in very truth are one with 
yourself. 

And so you have something of what service of man means on 
this lowest plane, and another service that you, above all, richer 
people in this land and in others, could set an example of, so 
that others from your voluntary action may learn to follow in 
the same path, you should simplify the physical life, you should 
lessen the physical wants, you should think less of luxury and 
more of the higher life, less labor wasted to minister to the artifi- 
cial wants of the body, and more time for the souls of men to grow 
less encumbered with the anxieties of life. If you take such teach- 
ing to the poor, true as the teaching is, one hardly dares to put it 
to them on whom the iron yoke of poverty presses, and who find 
in so much of physical suffering one of the miseries of their life. 
You should set the example, because with you it is voluntary 
action. You should set the ideal of plain living and high thinking 
instead of the ideal of senseless luxury, of gross materialistic living 



l88 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

on every side. Can you blame the poor that they think so much 
of earthly pleasure, that they desire so passionately material ease ? 
Can you blame them if in every civilized country discontent is 
growing, threats are filling the air, when you set the ideal which 
they copy in their desire, and when you, by the material pleasure 
of your lives, tell them that man's aim and object is but the joy of 
the sense, is but the pleasure of the moment ? This also is your 
duty in the service of man on a material plane, so that, lessening 
the wants of the body, he may learn to feed the soul, and making 
the outer life more nobly simple may give his energies rather to 
that which is permanent and which endures. 

But not only on the physical, the lowest plane, is the service of 
man to be sought. We rise to the mental plane, and there too must 
man be served far more efficaciously than he can be served on the 
physical plane. Do you say that at least I cannot do service on the 
mental plane ? That the mental plane is all very well for the great 
thinker that publishes some work that revolutionizes thought ? 
That it is all very well for the speaker who reaches thousands 
where I can reach but units ? It is not so. The great thinker, be 
he writer or be he speaker, has not such enormous over-plus of 
impulse as you, judging by the outer appearance, may imagine. 
True, his work is great, but has it never struck you in what lies the 
power of the speaker, whence comes the strength with which he 
moves a crowd ? It does not lie in himself ; it lies not in his own 
power, but in the power he is able to evoke from the men and 
women he addresses, from the human hearts he wakes. It is their 
energy and not his in the tide of his speech. The orator is but the 
tongue that syllables out the thoughts in the hearts of the people ; 
they are not able to speak them, they are not able to articulate 
them. The thoughts are there, and when some tongue puts them 
into speech, when the other inarticulate sense takes the force of 
the spoken word, then they think it is oratory. It is their own 
hearts that moves them, and it is this voice, inarticulate in the 
people, which from the lips of the speaker makes the power that 
rings from land to land. 

But that is not all. Every one of you in your daily thinking, 
every one of you has thoughts that you pour out to the world. 
You are making the possibilities of the morrow, you are making 
or marring the potencies of to-day. Even as you think, the thought 
burning in your brain becomes a living force for good or for evil 
in the mental atmosphere just as far as the vitality and the 
strength that are in it may be able to carry it on in its work in 
this world of mind. There is no woman, however weak, there is 
no man, however obscure, who has not in the soul within him one 
of the creative forces of the world. As he thinks, thoughts from 
him go out to mould the thoughts and lives of other men. As he 
thinks thoughts of love and gentleness, the whole reservoir of love 
in the world is filled to overflowing ; and as he contributes to 
them, so every day is formed that public opinion which is the 
moulder of men's ideas more than sometimes we are apt to dream. 
So that in this everyone has share, so that in this all men and 
women have their part. Your thought-power makes you creative 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 189 

Gods in the world, and it is thus that the future is builded, it is 
thus that the race climbs upward to the divine. 

Not alone in the physical nor alone in the mental sphere is this 
constant service of man to be sought; but of the service of the 
spiritual sphere, no words of platform oratory can fitly describe its 
nature or its sacredness. That is the work that is done in silence, 
without sound of spoken word, of clatter of human endeavor. 
That work lies above us and around us, and we must have learned 
the perfection of the service in the lower ere we dare aspire to 
climb where the spiritual work is done. What, then, is the out- 
come of such suggestion, what the effect in life of such philosophy 
applied to the life of each as it is made or met in the world to-day ? 
Surely it is that we should think nobly. Surely it is that our ideals 
should be lofty. Surely it is that in our daily life we should ever 
strike the highest keynote, and then strive to attune the living to 
the keynote that at our noblest we have struck. According to the 
ideal the. will is lifted. In the old phrase, the man becomes that 
which he worships. Let us see, then, that our ideals be lofty. 
Let us see that what we worship shall have in it the power that 
shall transform us into the image of the perfect man ; that shall 
transmute us into the perfect gold of which humanity shall finally 
consist. If you would help in that evolution, if you would bear 
your share in that great labor, then let your ideal be truth ; truth 
in every thought and act of life. Think true, otherwise you will 
act falsely. Let nothing of duplicity, nothing of insincerity, noth- 
ing of falsehood soil the inner sanctuary of your life, for if that be 
pure your actions will be spotless, and the radiance of the eternal 
truth shall make your lives strong and noble. Not only be true, 
but also be pure, for out of purity comes the vision of the divine, 
and only the pure in heart, as said the Christ, shall see God. That 
is true. In whatever phase you put it, that is true, whatever words 
describe it. Onty the pure in heart shall have the beatific vision, 
for that which is itself absolute purity must be shared in by the 
worshipper ere it can be seen. 

And then add tothese ideals of truth and of purity one that is 
lacking in our modern life, the ideal of reverence for what is noble, 
of adoration for that which is higher than one's self. Modern life 
is becoming petty because we are not strong enough to reverence. 
Modern life is becoming base, sordid, and vulgar because men fear 
that they will sink if they bow their heads to that which is greater 
than they are themselves. I tell you that worship of that which is 
higher than yourself raises you, it does not degrade you. That 
the feeling of reverence is a feeling that lifts you up, it does not 
take you down. We have talked so much about rights that we 
have forgotten that which is greater than a man's right with him- 
self. It is the power of seeing what is nobler than he has dreamed 
of, and bowing in the very dust before it till it permeates his life 
and makes him like itself. Only those who are weak are afraid to 
obey ; only those who are feeble are afraid of humility. Demo- 
crats we are in our modern phrase, and with the world of to-day 
as we have it democracy in the external world is the best fashion 
of carrying on the outer life. But if it were possible that as in the 



190 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

days of old in Egypt and India the very gods themselves wandered 
the earth as men and taught the people the higher, trained the 
people in the higher truth, conveyed to the people the higher 
knowledge, would we claim that we were their equals, and that we 
should be degraded by sitting at their feet to learn? And if you 
could weave into your modern life that feeling of reverence for 
that which is purest, noblest, grandest ; for wisdom, for strength, 
for purity, till the passion of your reverence should bring the qual- 
ities into your own life — Oh, then your future as a nation would 
be secure. Then your future as a people would be glorious, and 
you men and women of America, creators of the future, will you 
not rise to the divine possibilities which every one of you has 
hidden in his own heart? Why go only to the lower when the 
stars are above you ? Why go only to the dust when the sun 
sends down his beams that on those beams you may rise to his 
very heart ? Yours is the future, for you are making it to-day, and 
as you build the temple of your nation, as you hope that in the 
days to come it shall rise nobly amongst the peoples of the earth 
and stand as pioneer of true life, of true greatness, lay you the 
foundations strong to-day. No building can stand whose founda- 
tions are rotten, no nation can endure whose foundations are not 
divine. You have the power. Yours is the choice, and as you ex- 
ercise it the America of centuries to come will bless you for your 
living or will condemn you for your failure ; for you are the crea- 
tors of the world, and as you will so it shall be. (Applause.) 



Dr. J. D. Buck, Chairman : Speaking on behalf of our foreign 
delegates, of our associates on this platform, and of the Theosoph- 
ical Society in this grand Convention, we do not feel that we can 
adjourn without expressing, as I now have the honor to do, to 
the managers of the Parliament of Religions our sincere apprecia- 
tion of the courtesy, the kindness, the great fairness and liberality 
which have been extended to the Theosophical Society during all 
of its sessions. The Congress stands adjourned sine die. 



Lb '06 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 



I 9 I 



APPENDIX. 



Credentials of European Delegates. 

These are to be found in resolutions passed by the Convention 
of the European Section in July, 1893, at London. The delegates 
were Annie Besant, Miss F. Henrietta Miiller, Mrs. Isabel Cooper- 
Oakley. 

Special Credentials to Prof. Chakravarti. 

Three Brahmanical bodies in India gave him credentials which 
are printed in English below. As he was called to act by the 
whole Thesophical Society, every Section contributing to the 
expense, no credentials for that purpose were needed. 



[Written in English.] 

We, the Undersigned members of the CAWNPORE HARI 
BHAKTI PRODAYINI SABHA, do hereby appoint Babu Gyan- 
endra Nath Chakravarti, M.A., L.L. B., F. T. S., as our delegate 
for the purpose of expressing the views and tenets of this Brah- 
minical Society in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago. Signed, 



Kali Nath Banerji, 
Kashishwar Chakrawarty, 
Narain Chunder Banerjii, 
Shibchunder Buttacharjee, 
Shungalund, 
Beshumvher Nath, 
Beharilal Kapur, 
Brajalal Chakravarti, 
Lalta Pershad Bajpai, 
Hari Ram, 

Gyanendra Nath Ghosaul, 
Khetter Chunder Dass, 
Gooroo N. Mookerjee, 
Dharmadas Mukerjee, 
Pundit Biseswar Misser, 
Pundit Ramdulare Dubey, 
Pundit Sita Ram, 
Devi Poda Roy, 
jogendro nauth chatteji, 
Purna Chandra Mukerji, 
Haran Chandra Bhadja, 
Aghore Nath Mukerjee, 
Thacoor Dass Mookerjee, 
Traylokya Nath Banerjee, 
Nagendra Nath Banerjee, 
Jogendra Nath Banerjee, 
Bejoy Gapal Nandi, 
sldheshwar mukerjee, 

BlDHU Bhusan 



Sarat Ch. Banerji, 
Jatendra Nath Mookerjee, 
Lalit Mohan Mukerjee, 
hurrydas dutt, 
Sarat Chandra Banerjee, 
Rajandran Chakravarti, 
Shiva Krishna Roy, 
Sreenath Dass, 
Harish Chunder Mukerjee, 
Shaman C Mookerjee, 
Umapudo Roy, 
M. M. Ghose, 

Jogendra Nath Basu, L.M.S, 
Abani Sanker Roy. 
Surendro Nauth Banerjee, 
Poorna Chundra Bhaduri, 
M. N. Ganguli, 
G. N. Ganpati. 
Rama Kissen Banerjee, 
Otool Chunder Mookerjee, 
J. N. Oulto, 
M. D. Singha, 
HeraLal Ghosh, 
Hara Mohan Chakravarty, 
nugendronath ghosal. 
Behary Lal Ghosh. 
K. L. Mukerjee, 
I. N. Chatterjee. 
Bhattacharji. 



I92 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

[In Sanscrit.] 
MAY PROSPERITY ATTEND YOU. 



At a Meeting of the Varnashrama Dharma Sabha 
Pundit Kashinath Sastri. 



As there is going to sit in the Western land of America a grand 
Convention of all the different religions of the world, it is desirable 
that somebody should represent this Sabha at its sittings. We 
therefore hereby depute Sri Pundit Ganendra Nath Chakravarti 
to represent us at the Congress, and we hope that prosperity may 
attend the Sabha of ours. 

[In Hindustan.] 
Delhi, India (Indraprastha.) 

At a Meeting of the Sanatan Dharm Rakhshanee Sabha, 

Meerut. 



As there is going to sit in America a Parliament of the different 
religions of the world, to be attended by men of learning, intelli- 
gence, and religious training, this Sabha requests Sri Pundit 
Ganendra Nath Chakravarti that he would kindly represent the 
Brahmanic doctrines at its sittings. 



Australasian Credentials. 

To Mrs. Isabel Cooper-Oakley, 

Fellow of the Theosophical Society : 
Madam : The Victorian Theosophical League, being here- 
unto authorized by the various Branches of the Theosophical 
Society throughout the Australasian Colonies and Tasmania, here- 
by appoint you as Delegate to represent the Thesophists of Aus- 
tralia and Tasmania at the Congress of Religions to be held in 
connection with the World's Fair at Chicago, U. S. A., in the 
month of September, 1893. 

Dated this 31st day of July, 1893. 
Victorian Theosophical ^| 

League Headq'rs, ! H. W. Hunt, F. T. S., President. 

Collins St., ( H. B. Leader, F. T. S., Secretary. 

Melbourne. J 

New Zealand, July 26, 1893. 
To Mrs. Cooper-Oakley : 

Madam : We, the undersigned officers of the Theosophical 
Society, as representing the North and Middle Islands of New Zea- 
land, respectively hereby appoint you to act as our delegate to the 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 193 

forthcoming Congress of Religions to be held at Chicago (U. S. 
A.) during September proximo. In doing so we desire to express- 
our keen sense of the eminent services rendered by you to the 
cause of the most ancient Wisdom Religion during your recent 
tour through Australasia. We have the honor to remain, Madam, 
Your obedient servants, 

Lilian Edger, President, 
W. H. Draffin, Hon. Sec. 

Auckland T. S. 
Grant P. Farquhar, President, 
A. W. Maurais, Hon. Sec. 

Dunedin T. S. 



Ceylon Credentials. 

Headquarters ) 

Theosophical Society, !• 

Colombo, Ceylon, 19th July, 1893. ) 
That at a meeting of the Colombo Theosophical Society held at 
its Headquarters on the 19th July, 1893, the following resolution 
was proposed by Brother D. J. Subasinha and seconded by 
Brother I. Gunawardana, and unanimously carried : 

" That Brother H. Dharmapala do represent the Colombo 
Theosophical Society at the Theosophical Congress to be held at 
Chicago on the 15th and 16th September, 1893, in connection with 
the World's First Parliament of Religions." 

D. J. Gunawardana, President. 
C. P. G. Gooniwarden, Secretary. 



194 THE THEOSOPHICAL CONGRESS. 

THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



General Information. 

The Society is not a secret or political organization ; it is an 
international body ; its constitution is founded on the principles 
of perfect autonomy and non-interference ; it is wholly without a 
creed or dogma ; the sole doctrine to be accepted is that of Univer- 
sal Brotherhood. Its stated objects are : 

First. — To form the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of 
Humanity, without distinction of race, sex, creed, caste, or color. 

Second. — To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern lit- 
eratures, religions, and sciences, and demonstrate the importance 
of that study. 

Third. — To investigate unexplained laws of nature and the psy- 
chical powers latent in man. 

As a condition precedent to membership, belief in and adher- 
ance to the first of the above named objects is required ; as to the 
other two, members may pursue them or not, as they see fit. The 
act of joining the Society, therefore, carries with it no obligation 
whatever to profess belief in either the practicability of presently 
realizing the brotherhood of mankind, or in the superior value t>f 
Aryan over modern science, or in the existence of occult powers 
latent in man. It implies only intellectual sympathy in the at- 
tempt to disseminate tolerant and brotherly feelings, to discover 
as much truth as can be uncovered by diligent study and careful 
experimentation, and to essay the formation of a nucleus of a Uni- 
versal Brotherhood. 

Officers and Offices. 

General Headquarters at Adyar, Madras, India, where the 
Society has a property and buildings, where the Oriental Library is 
and where the President at present resides. 

President, Col. H. S. Olcott ; Vice-President, William Q. Judge, 
New York ; Secretary and Treasurer subject to appointment. 

European Headquarters at 19 Avenue Road, Regent's Park, Lon- 
don, England. General Secretary of European Section, George R. 
S. Mead. 

American Headquarters, 144 Madison Avenue, New York. Gen- 
eral Secretary of American Section, William Q. Judge. 

Indian Section Headquarters at the Society's building, Adyar. 
General Secretary Indian Section, Bertram Keightley. 

For administrative purposes Sections are formed when the 
, number of Branches in a territory warrants it. At the date of this 
report the Sections are India, America, Europe. 

H & m. Annual Conventions of Sections. 

Indian Section in December-January ; European Section in 
July ; American Section in April. 

Joining the T. S. and Membership. 
Applicants become members by joining a Branch or by being 
admitted as at large (or unattached) by any proper officer. In all 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AND DOCUMENTS. 195 

cases the application has to be signed by the applicant and en- 
dorsed by two active members in good standing. The application 
is handed to a Branch if made thus, or to the president of a Branch 
who, as such, has the right to admit members as at large or unat- 
tached ; the General Secretary has also the right to admit mem- 
bers as at large or unattached. In each case the application is 
sent to the General Secretary of the Section for registering and 
issuing diploma. The President of the T. S. of course may admit 
members at all times and places, but Secretaries have no such 
right outside their Sections. Members at large may affiliate at 
any time with a Branch if mutually agreeable. It is understood 
that any member majr attend any meeting of any Branch wherever 
he may be. 

Dues for entrance are fixed by each Section according to its 
constitution. Annual dues of Branches are fixed by the by-laws 
of the Branch. 

What Members Receive. 

In America all members receive the yearly report, such docu- 
ments as issue from time to time from the office of the General 
Secretary, and also a copy of the Forum, which is an occasional 
(monthly as near as may be) pamphlet consisting of questions and 
answers on Theosophical topics. Issues of the Oriental Depart- 
ment when printed are also sent to each member. Branches re- 
ceive each month or so a Branch paper upon some Theosophical 
subject. 

The Circulating Library at Headquarters is also open to 
members under its rules. 

A Correspondence Class is carried on from Headquarters, open 
to all members. In this questions are sent out at stated intervals 
upon Theosophical subjects, answers examined and returned with 
comments, lines of study indicated, references given, and now and 
then summaries of the subject studied forwarded to the members. 
Any member of the American Section in good standing can join by 
applying to the Secretary Correspondence Class, 144 Madison Ave., 
New York. 

In Europe the Vaha?i takes the place occupied in America by 
the Forum, and the same system is otherwise pursued. 

In India the Prasnottara is their question and answer publica- 
tion, and they also have Branch papers. 

Periodicals. 
The Theosophist, Adyar, Madras, India, $5.00 per year. 
Lucifer, London, 19 Avenue Road, N. W., $4.25 per year. 
The Path, 144 Madison Avenue, New York, $2.00 per year. 
Theosophical Sif tings, London, 7 Duke St., Adelphf, W. G, 
$1.25 per year. - '-> 

New Calif ortiian, Los Angeles, Cal., $1.50 per year.' 
Pacific Theosophist, 1504 Market St., San Francisco. 
Others in various Oriental languages. 

American Sub-Centres. 
San Francisco, 1504 Market St.; Chicago, 26 Van Buren St. 











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